End blockade of Cuba: Castro to Obama

By at 20 April, 2009, 12:09 am

HAVANA: Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, reacting to an Americas summit Monday, urged US President Barack Obama to end a nearly half-a-century-old US economic “blockade” of Cuba.
“I would like to remind him of an elementary ethical principal that has to do with Cuba,” Castro wrote about Obama on the website Cubadebate.
“Continued injustice or crime cannot be justified regardless of the era, in which it has occurred,” the Caribbean island nation’s revolutionary leader continued.
“The cruel blockade against the Cuban people costs lives and results in human suffering.”
Castro also lamented what he described as “evasive and terse” remarks by the US president about Cuba on Sunday at the closing of the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.
Speaking in Port of Spain, Obama admitted that the half-century US policy on Cuba “hasn’t worked” because Cubans “aren’t free.” But he cautioned it would not be changed soon.
“The issues of political prisoners, freedom of speech and democracy are important, and can’t simply be brushed aside,” he said at the close of the summit.
Obama’s comments tempered speculation that a historic thaw in relations between the United States and Cuba was on its way following conciliatory gestures by the two countries.
Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in recent days said they were willing to open talks on such hot-button issues as political prisoners and human rights. The US economic embargo on Cuba has been in place since 1962. Obama last week ordered an easing of the measures, lifting restrictions on travel and financial remittances to the island nation by Cuban-Americans.

White House Press legend quits amid Israel row Veteran 89-year-old White House correspondent, Helen Thomas, who covered every...
Iran aid ships to challenge Israel The Iranian Red Crescent said on Monday that it will...
IT services issues for 2009 The impact of the slowing economy on BPO business models,...
Lok Sabha polls: No pan-India issues NEW DELHI: This is a strange election —it’s an all-India...
NKorea to restart N-weapons programme, quit talks North Korea announced it would quit six-nation disarmament talks and...
A winding path to inflation In the short run inflation is an economic phenomenon. In...
Kasab’s lawyer faces flak from Shias MUMBAI: Terror accused Ajmal Amir Kasab’s lawyer Abbas Kazmi is...
State sponsors accountable: Bush Washington: U.S. President George W. Bush has warned that state...