PORT OF SPAIN, April 18 (AFP) - US President Barack Obama has seized on an extraordinary overture from Cuba to propose talks aimed at breaking the half-century hostility born between Washington and Havana during the Cold War.
He told a Summit of the Americas with Latin American leaders in Trinidad and Tobago that he wanted to establish “a new beginning” with Cuba that would recognize past US “errors,” but require reciprocal gestures from the communist island.The conciliatory language raised the prospect of the United States considering ending its 47-year-old embargo on Cuba.
Several other leaders at the summit -- including those from Argentina, Nicaragua and Belize -- voiced a general consensus in Latin America that the embargo should be scrapped and Cuba readmitted into regional bodies.
“I am prepared to have my administration engage with Cuba on a wide range of issues -- from drugs to migration and economic issues to human rights, free speech and democratic reform,” Obama said. |
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