Business & Economy

One of the most significant actions taken today was to rescind the ban on receiving cargo ships in US ports for six months after having docked in Cuba. This provision could make much more viable the deep water port that the Castro government built with Brazilian funding at Mariel west of Havana.

While the Cuban government and Communist Party finance, control and monitor all media and any legal organizations in the country, the US government funds several organizations, some based inside Cuba and some abroad, trying to effect policy or regime change on the island.

The state company CubaPetróleo (Cupet) reduced the level of expectations created by the alleged discovery of a major oil field in the center of the island and said the news was a “misinterpretation”.

The United States and Cuba took an important step along the road towards the normalization of relations between the countries with the inauguration of the Bilateral Economic Dialogue in Washington D.C., a forum for discussing topics of mutual interest with an eye towards the future.

Cuban President Raul Castro has asked Russia to once begin supplying Cuba with oil. Before the Soviet Union’s disintegration in 1991, it was Cuba’s main supplier under favorable trade terms.

The first direct commercial flight between the US and Cuba landed today in the city of Santa Clara, in the center of the island, after more than half a century of restrictions.

The US Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx, will travel to Cuba on Wednesday on the first commercial flight between the two countries after more than 50 years of suspension.

Cuba’s monopoly telecommunications company, Etecsa, announced on Monday an agreement for direct interconnection with the US giant AT&T for the exchange of international voice traffic between the two countries.