Movement on US-Cuba Ties

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, Oct. 7 – The recent 6-day visit of US State Department official Bisa Williams to Cuba has brought new speculation that the 50-year-old hostile US policy towards the island could be poised to undergo a change.

Williams’ trip was initially to discuss resumption of direct postal service between the two countries, suspended in 1963.   However it turned into a deeper mission to test the waters for greater rapprochement.

The diplomat met with deputy Cuban foreign minister Dagoberto Rodriguez, visited areas of hurricane damage, attended the Juanes Peace without Borders concert and met at the US Interests Section residence with a group of Cuban artists and musicians among her activities.

The visit came on the heels of President Obama’s contradictory extending of the blockade on Cuba for another year in September, and not long before Congress is expected to consider bills that would free US citizens to travel to the Caribbean country, the only nation that Washington prohibits its people from visiting without a special license.

For two informative pieces on the visit of the US official to Cuba see: Bisa’s Cuba Visa and Getting There – US/Cuba Ties