Off the wire
• Russia to reinforce military infrastructure in Far East: commander  • China-Australia media cooperation to increase cultural understanding  • PBOC pumps more money into market  • S.Korean president says not to succumb to DPRK's nuke threats  • News firms seek approval to create New Zealand's biggest media company  • Indian troops kill 3 militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir gunfight  • New Zealand meat firm shareholders to vote again on China partnership  • Indian stocks open higher  • 1st LD Writethru: 6.4-magnitude undersea quake rocks Fiji, Tonga  • U.S. detects "nightmare bacteria" resistant to last-resort antibiotic  
You are here: 　 Home

U.S. conference of mayors promises to help lift trade embargo against Cuba

Xinhua, May 27, 2016 Adjust font size:

A mission of the U.S. Conference of Mayors promised here on Thursday to advocate ending the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, which has crippled the island's economy for more than five decades and remains in place despite the two countries' rapprochement.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the president of the conference which groups mayors of more than a hundred U.S. cities, admitted that his organization has not yet finalized a common position on this matter.

"We are in Cuba today representing our nation's mayors as a first step towards determining how we can collaborate with our counterparts here in Cuba to strengthen the economic vitality of both of our nations," Rawlings-Blake said.

He said the conference has long been committed to building and sustaining relationships with its international colleagues and Cuba is no exception to that rule.

The visit comes after the two countries agreed to end half a century of hostility and restore diplomatic ties in December 2014.

However, about one year and a half on, Havana is still waiting for Washington to show its true sincerity in changing tack in Cuba, particularly to lift its trade embargo on Cuba.

Though the 2014 agreement between Cuba and the United States has been hailed as "historic," many political observers say that the outcome of the rapprochement with the United States for Cuba has been close to nil, unless one believes that allowing a few more American travelers to Havana to bring back a handful of cigars will have a decisive impact on the island's economy.

Daniel Patrick Welch, a Boston-based political analyst, even said in an interview in March that the United States is not honest in normalizing relations with Cuba, and it is almost certainly laying the groundwork for a "color revolution" in the Latin American nation.

"The United States has no intentions of ending the Cold War in any form whatsoever. It is ramping it up, and restarting the Cold War 2.0 all around the world, and that includes Latin America," said Welch. Endi