Tillerson signals tough Trump administration stance on Cuba

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

POLITICS | Tue Jun 13, 2017 | 8:07pm EDT

Tillerson signals tough Trump administration stance on Cuba

By Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday a policy of engagement with Cuba has financially benefited the island's government in violation of U.S. law, further fueling expectations that President Donald Trump this week will roll back parts of former President Barack Obama’s opening to Havana.

Speaking ahead of Trump’s expected trip to Miami on Friday to announce his new Cuba policy, Tillerson insisted that Havana "must begin to address human rights challenges" if it wants Washington to continue normalizing relations between the Cold War-era foes.

Tillerson, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, acknowledged that rapprochement with the communist-ruled island has led to an increase in U.S. visitors and U.S. business ties.

However, Tillerson added: "We think we have achieved very little in terms of changing the behavior of the regime in Cuba .... and it has little incentive today to change that."

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cuba-tillerson-idUSKBN19428A

[still_one]

1. A bunch of ncorrigible assholes. They are trying to destroy every positive acomplishment

President Obama did.

These are really evil people

[Freethinker65]

2. The same Rex that said this in May? Hahaha

“Guiding all our foreign policy actions are our fundamental values -- our values around freedom, human dignity, the way people are treated,” he said. “Those are our values. Those are not our policies, ” Tillerson told State Department employees in a speech today.

What that means in practice, he said, is that sometimes values have to take a back seat to economic interests or national security.

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“If we condition too heavily that others must adopt this value that we’ve come to after a long history of our own, it really creates obstacles to our ability to advance our national security interests, our economic interests,” he said, arguing the U.S. must first ask “what are our national security interests, what are our economic prosperity interests, and then if we can advocate and advance our values, we should.”

They want to personally make $$$$$$ in Cuba. $$$$ is all they value. Economic interests Trumps everything. Once they personally get the economic incentives they desire, Cuba will be reopened.

[stephensolomita]

4. Amen, Brothers and Sisters

And don't forget, there are all those Cuban-American votes in Miami to consider.

[msongs]

3. permission to build some trump towers should solve this problem nt