By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--December 17, 2014
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The United States and Cuba will start talks on normalizing full diplomatic relations, marking the most significant shift in U.S. policy toward the communist island in decades, American officials said Wednesday. The announcement comes amid a series of new confidence-building measures between the longtime foes, including the release of American Alan Gross and the freeing of three Cubans jailed in the U.S. President Barack Obama was to announce the policy changes from the White House at noon Wednesday. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, said the U.S. and Cuba were moving toward normalized banking and trade ties. He also said the U.S. was poised to open an embassy in Havana in the coming months. "This is going to do absolutely nothing to further human rights and democracy in Cuba," Rubio said in an interview. "But it potentially goes a long way in providing the economic lift that the Castro regime needs to become permanent fixtures in Cuba for generations to come."In other words, as part of Obama's scorched Earth lame-duck policy, we're going to cozy up to the Castro family - some of the planet's worst human rights abusers. Speaking as someone whose wife wouldn't exist had Fidel managed to succeed in his plan to murder her father, rewarding this band of monstrous thugs with any sort of official recognition is deeply - and personally - insulting. I imagine I'm not alone in this sentiment. I also imagine that Obama couldn't care less, since this is exactly the kind of thing we've come to expect from him.
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