Cuba Mail to US Back to Cold War Status

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, Jan 21 — Mail service from Cuba to the United States has returned to the old icy Cold War status after a brief lapse of exchange over the last year.

Once again, it is Cuban families with relatives on both sides of the Florida Straits that will most suffer the consequences.

With no reports having appeared in the Cuban online press as of Friday afternoon, the BBC noted that “the suspension follows the introduction of stricter security measures by the US last year after the attempted mailing of explosives from Yemen.”

In an announcement broadcast on Cuban TV quoted by Reuters, The Cuban postal service said large amounts of mail were refused entry to the US and returned since last November when Washington imposed new “anti-terrorist measures to mail deliveries from many countries including Cuba.”

Separated by only 90 miles, the US has maintained an economic blockade on Cuba since a half century ago to try and cripple the island’s economy. Mail service between the two countries was halted back in 1963.

“Talks between the government of U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuba’s communist leadership led to the resumption of deliveries via third countries such as Mexico and Canada in 2009. Direct deliveries were under discussion,” noted Reuters.

Well over a million Cubans are estimated to be living in Florida.