Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Papal Notes - Pope's American Foriegn Policy

"The U.S., which has had a tight trade embargo on Cuba since 1961, is now set to announce a loosening of economic and travel restrictions. The Obama administration is also looking to set up an embassy in the Cuban capital of Havana "in the coming months," the White House says.

Alan Gross, the American contractor who has been imprisoned in Cuba since 2009, will be released to the United States by the Cuban government, the White House announced Wednesday. The so-called "humanitarian release" will coincide with an exchange of three Cubans convicted of espionage in Miami for one unnamed U.S. intelligence asset. Gross, who was arrested while in Cuba as part of a USAID telecommunications program, was convicted of espionage by a Cuban court in 2011 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Gross' wife and members of Congress, including long-time advocates for his release Sens. Patrick Leahy and Jeff Flake and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, are on board his flight back to the United States.



Although negotiations had been brewing for some time, the first face-to-face meeting between Cuban and American officials took place in Canada in June 2013. Many of the ensuing meetings took place in Canada, but senior administration officials said that the Vatican played an important role in bringing the sides together as well. When Obama visited the Vatican in March, he and Pope Francis discussed the issue, and the Pope sent Obama and Castro personal letters to encourage them to press forward with negotiations.

The Vatican released a statement later Wednesday congratulating the governments of the U.S. and Cuba.


Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., joined in the criticism. "At a minimum Barack Obama is the worst negotiator we've had as president since at least Jimmy Carter, and maybe in the modern history of this country," he said on Fox News Wednesday. "The issue that I care about in Cuba is democracy," Rubio later said on CNN. "Nothing that is happening here will further that cause." The senator, and possible 2016 presidential contender, called the move a "life-line" for the Castro regime." NationalJournal


"Months of talks in Canada and at the Vatican, involving one of Obama's closest aides, culminated on Tuesday, when Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro spoke by phone for nearly an hour and gave final assent to steps that could end a half-century of enmity and reshape Western Hemisphere relations.
"The Vatican played a significant role," Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, told Reuters. Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the Archbishop of Havana, also took part in the diplomacy, Durbin said.
The secret talks, U.S. officials said, were coordinated via diplomatic Interests Sections - short of full embassies - that the two sides maintain in each others' capitals, as well as Cuba's mission to the United Nations." Yahoo
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death;
1798
and his deadly wound was healed:
Since 1798
and all the world wondered after the beast.
Today
Revelation 13:3