Yeah, I just started following that. I heard an interview of a senator that went down to Cuba and met him. This is indeed a historic day. This has gone on for far too long, I have a feeling that they'll be partying in Miami tonight!
How on earth did they keep this a secret?In a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis, who hosted a final meeting at the Vatican, Mr. Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba agreed in a telephone call to put aside decades of hostility to find a new relationship between the United States and the island nation just 90 miles off the American coast.
I cannot wait to travel there. It's #1 on the list for my wife and I, and has been for a bit. We looked into honeymooning there, but utilizing the loopholes that allowed US Citizens to vacation there were far too cumbersome. Also, credit where it's due, +1 for the Pope.
I researched it, you can already vacation there via loopholes, but it has to be in the form of these wierd historical guided tours and such...we didn't want a honeymoon with a chaperone, -that would have been lame. I think we could do it now or shortly with the restrictions lifted on business travel, what with M's retail store and all. We could do a buying trip. I bet that most travel is normalized in a half a decade or so as long as stupid Republicans don't brand it a leftist Obama policy that needs to be destroyed. Most effective way to open up that country to political reform is probably opening markets and exporting our capitalistic culture. I'm sure I'm being too optimistic now that I think about it since overturning the sanctions would require congressional approval.