CUBA/FOREIGN POLICY/GOP: “U.S. supporters of improved relations with Cuba joined the top leadership of the Caribbean country on Sunday [1-28-18] to inaugurate a replica of a New York statue of its independence hero Jose Marti.
Just a few years ago, the hundreds gathered for the event overseen by Cuban President Raul Castro would have been in a celebratory mood, but the brief ceremony at daybreak in Havana’s colonial district was a sober affair.
With the advent of the Republican administration in Washington, a pall has fallen over the two countries’ fragile detente.
U.S. President Donald Trump, whose hometown of New York donated the statue, has imposed new restrictions on travel and trade with the Communist-run island and disparaged what he calls the ‘terrible and misguided’ policy of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, toward Cuba.
Throughout Sunday’s event, Castro and other officials sat stone-faced…
Since August, tensions between the two countries have deteriorated further over a series of alleged attacks affecting the health of U.S. diplomats in Havana.
The United States has withdrawn a majority of its diplomats from the city and expelled 17 Cubans from their Washington embassy, all but ending consular services and most contact.”
-Marc Frank, “Trump casts pall on inauguration of U.S. statue of Marti in Cuba,” Reuters, Jan. 28, 2018 07:53am