Isolation Shifts from Cuba to US

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, June 1 – The new president of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, announced the immediate reestablishment of diplomatic, commercial and cultural relations with Cuba during his inauguration in San Salvador on Monday, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looking on.

The official reestablishment of ties was penned by Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez and Cuba’s deputy Foreign Minister Alejandro Gonzalez. Presiding over the ceremony was President Funes and Cuban VP Esteban Lazo.

“This is an act that brings El Salvador into the current times and overcomes the historic debt with Cuba,” said Funes who added that El Salvador “should never have broken off relations with Cuba.”

Back in the early 1960s, the United States successfully pressured all Latin American nations except Mexico to break off ties with Cuba and its young revolution, leaving the Caribbean island to look to other latitudes for trade and collaboration.

With the reestablished links with El Salvador and recently with Costa Rica, Cuba now has diplomatic relations with all countries in the Western Hemisphere except the United States, which still clings to its Cold War policy on the island.