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| President Barack Obama speaks during a town hall meeting at the University of the West Indies, Thursday, April 9, 2015, in Kingston, Jamaica. The president said Thursday that he soon decide whether to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism now that the State Department has finished a review on the question as part of the move to reopen diplomatic relations with the island nation. |
PANAMA CITY
(AP) -- Turning the page on a half-century of hostility, President
Barack Obama signaled Thursday he will soon remove Cuba from the U.S.
list of state sponsors of terrorism, boosting hopes for improved ties as
he prepared for a historic encounter with Cuban President Raul Castro.
Hours
before his arrival in Panama for a regional summit, Obama said the U.S.
State Department had finished its review of Cuba's presence on the
list, a stain on the island nation's pride and a major stumbling block
for efforts to mend U.S.-Cuba ties. A top senator confirmed that the
agency had recommended removing Cuba from the list, all but ensuring
action by the president within days.
"We don't
want to be imprisoned by the past," Obama said during a visit to
Kingston, Jamaica. "When something doesn't work for 50 years, you don't
just keep on doing it. You try something new."
With
his optimistic assessment, Obama sought to set the tone for the U.S.
and Cuba to come closer to closing the book on more than a half-century
of estrangement, when he and Castro come face to face at the Summit of
the Americas. Obama arrived Thursday evening in Panama City.
The
highly anticipated interaction with Castro will test the power of
personal diplomacy as the two leaders attempt to move past the sticking
points that have interfered with their attempt to relaunch diplomatic
relations.
In another sign of high-level
engagement, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry - also attending the
summit - was to meet Thursday evening with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno
Rodriguez, the State Department said.
The U.S.
has long since stopped actively accusing Cuba of supporting terrorism,
and Obama has hinted at his willingness to take Cuba off the list ever
since he and Castro announced a thaw in relations in December. Yet Obama
has stopped short of the formal decision amid indications that the
White House was reluctant to grant Cuba's request until other thorny
issues - such as restrictions on U.S. diplomats in Havana - were
resolved.
Cuba is one of just four countries
still on the U.S. list of countries accused of repeatedly supporting
global terrorism; Iran, Sudan and Syria are the others. The designation
not only offends Cuba's pride but also restricts Havana's access to
credit and financial systems.
Sen. Ben Cardin
of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate's foreign relations panel,
called the recommendation to delist Cuba an important step toward
forging a more productive U.S.-Cuba relationship.
"The United States has
a unique opportunity to begin a fresh chapter with Cuba - one that
advances our national interests on the island and in the hemisphere," he
said.
Yet while recent polling has shown
broad support for the thaw in both Cuba and the U.S., the change has
attracted fierce opposition from many other members of Congress -
especially those who represent the large Cuban-American population in
Florida. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday there were
"serious questions" about the wisdom of taking Cuba off the list "while
this dictatorship, which practices repression at home and supports
violence throughout the region, continues to hold power."
This
year's summit is the first to include Cuba, and for Castro it's a
powerful opportunity to prove his country can be a responsible player on
the world stage. Obama arrives having amassed some goodwill in Latin
America by upending the U.S. policy of isolating Cuba, a policy that had
irritated others in the region, and by loosening immigration policies
at home.
How much face time Obama and Castro
will have at the summit was unclear. Although no formal meetings were
scheduled, the White House said the two would surely cross paths.
Obama
and Castro shared a handshake in 2013 at Nelson Mandela's funeral, a
jarring image for those who still recall the levels of U.S.-Cuban
antipathy during the Cold War.
While in
Panama, Obama was to meet Friday with Panamanian President Juan Carlos
Varela and other Central American leaders. He planned to speak at a
forum of CEOs before joining other leaders for dinner at Panama Viejo,
home to archaeological ruins dating to the 1500s. A visit to the Panama
Canal was also likely.
In a nod to lingering
U.S. concerns about human rights and political freedoms, Obama is making
a point to attend a forum bringing together both dissidents and members
of the Cuban political establishment. On Wednesday, Castro supporters
aggressively heckled a group of Cuban dissidents at a civil society
forum in Panama City, drawing criticism from the U.S.
Although
taking Cuba off the terror list would remove one major obstacle to
warming relations, Obama acknowledged that progress hasn't been as swift
as some had hoped.
Both nations called in
December for quickly reopening embassies in each other's capitals -
hopefully in time for the summit. That hasn't materialized, in part due
to disagreements about U.S. diplomats' freedom of movement in Havana.
The U.S. sees those restrictions as an attempt to stifle dissent by
limiting Americans' interactions with Castro's political opponents.
"They
are proceeding as I expected," Obama said of the talks between Havana
and Washington. "I never foresaw that immediately, overnight, everything
would transform itself."
The wild card at the
summit: Venezuela's leftist President Nicolas Maduro. Obama's recent
move to slap sanctions on seven leading Venezuelan figures seemed to
backfire when other Latin leaders denounced it as overkill and rallied
to Maduro's side. Maduro had said he plans to hand Obama documents with
millions of signatures denouncing U.S. aggression.
