U.S. And Cuba To Announce Embassy Openings

[Purveyor]

Source: CNN

By Jim Acosta, Elise Labott and Kevin Liptak, CNN
Updated 6:50 PM ET, Tue June 30, 2015

Washington (CNN)The United States and Cuba on Wednesday plan to officially seal the renewal of diplomatic ties begun last year, announcing the reopening of embassies in Washington and Havana for the first time in more than half-a-century, two senior administration officials told CNN on Tuesday.

"We will formally announce tomorrow that the United States and Cuba have reached an agreement to re-establish formal diplomatic relations and open embassies in each other's capitals," one senior U.S. administration official said. "We expect President Obama and Secretary Kerry to address this publicly tomorrow morning."

The re-establishing of embassies is a final step in the full diplomatic thaw President Barack Obama initiated in December. Since then, the United States has loosened some travel restrictions to Cuba and allowed for some new economic ties.

In April, Obama met with Raul Castro during a summit meeting in Panama, the first time the leaders of Cuba and the United States had met in more than 50 years.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/30/politics/u-s-cuba-embassy-relationship/

[geek tragedy]

1. history being made . . . nt

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

21. Again!!!

This is a great year for the history books.

[47of74]

2. Cue the reich wing freakout

Especially from the likes of Rubio.

[cosmicone]

3. Oh no .... another bad news for freepers in a week ...

I am beginning to feel sorry for them. (Just kidding!)

[Fred Sanders]

4. Republicans are going to need need a whole new set of dentures, what with all the tooth-gnashing they are doing lately.

And watch the blood pressure, number one cause of death in Americans, just trying to give the fascists and Perpetual Pouterage folks some friendly advise.

President Obama......we are not worthy.

[Duval]

5. Obama has yet another

accomplishment? Wonder how this will be received by the Republicans. OH, the post above answers my question.

[Babel_17]

6. Great news for both countries

Think of what we can do, working together instead of at cross purposes.

[Uncle Joe]

7. This is good and I believe long overdue.

Thanks for the thread, Purveyor.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Great step forward, isn't it? n/t

[davidpdx]

9. Hopefully once we get a cooperative Congress they we will be able to afford to build an embassy

I think at first we are going to have to have an interim embassy while the details and funding are hashed out.

[Purveyor]

10. The USA can't afford a damned thing without borrowing and/or printing $$$. That said, I look

forward to the establishment of US/Cuba embassy's.

[davidpdx]

11. Yep, agreed

If we'd just get rid of the damn tax breaks for the rich and the oil and gas subsidies that would be a good start.

I hope they are able to get enough money to make sure where ever it is the embassy is secure. All embassies experience some sort of threat how ever small it might be.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. that's not accurate.

federal tax revenue exceeded 3,000,000,000,000 dollars in 2014. That is a lot of dollars. That is a lot of stuff we can afford without borrowing a dime. Of course the federal government spent 3,500,000,000,000 dollars. So we did borrow money.

[Recursion]

13. We've had a staffed building this whole time that's officially part of the Swiss embassy

Cuba has the equivalent in DC (on 14th street, by Malcolm X Park). The property itself exists, though obviously we'll want it to be bigger if we start doing consular work.

[davidpdx]

14. That's what I was thinking

The embassy here in Korea is pretty big.

[Adrahil]

16. Exactly.

WE'll need a bigger building eventually, but the "interest section" will do for now.

Proud of President, AGAIN, today.

[Daniel537]

17. I've been inside the USINT in Havana

Its very big, has the most personnel of any embassy in Cuba. Granted the building needs some significant upgrading from years of deterioration, State Dept. would like about $6.6M, but it can definitely do for now, assuming congress tries to pull another one of its stunts.

[Recursion]

18. I didn't realize the staff was that big

But I guess they can't really hire any local staff there (though maybe that will change now too).

[Daniel537]

19. Oh no, they actually do hire locals.

In fact they make up the majority of employees at the USINT. But they need a lot of US personnel to process the large amount of Cubans applying for visas. I'm curious to see if an increase in personnel will be part of this deal.

[Adrahil]

15. So the POSUCS keeps moving forward! ha! n/t

[Paladin]

20. Outstanding! (nt)

[DFW]

22. I predicted this after the 2008 election:

That we and Cuba would restore diplomatic relations before Obama left office.

It took long enough (I realize he had more important things on his mind), but it is finally happening. It's time.