FROM OBAMA WITH LOVE...

FROM OBAMA WITH LOVE...
USA to release three Cuban spies...
'Normalize' relationship with Castro...
Obama Doesn't Rule Out Visit...
Shockwaves through Miami exile community...
Protest In Little Havana...
'Traitor, traitor'...
Travel Industry Eyeing Cuba Tourism...
RUBIO: 'Terrible setback for the oppressed'...
Dem: Rewards 'brutal behavior'...
Pope Heavily Involved...
Secret talks in Canada, Vatican City...

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Brief Summary of American and Cuban Relations

 Cuba and the United States of America have had an interest in one another since well before either of their independence movements. Plans for the purchase of Cuba from the Spanish Empire were put forward at various times by the United States. As the Spanish influence waned in the Caribbean, the United States gradually gained a position of economic and political dominance over the island, with the vast majority of foreign investment holdings and the bulk of imports and exports in its hands, as well as a strong influence on Cuban political affairs.

Following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, relations deteriorated substantially and have been marked by tension and confrontation since. The United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Cuba and has maintained an embargo which makes it illegal for U.S. corporations to do business with Cuba. U.S. diplomatic representation in Cuba is handled by the United States Interests Section in Havana, and there is a similar Cuban Interests Section in Washington D.C; both are officially part of the respective embassies of Switzerland. The United States imposed the embargo because of the nationalization of US corporations' property during the Revolution, and has stated it will continue it so long as the Cuban government continues to refuse to move toward democratization and greater respect for human rights, hoping to see democratization and a reintroduction of capitalism of the type that took place in Eastern Europe after the revolutions of 1989. Meanwhile, several organizations, including a nearly-unanimous UN General Assembly, have called for "an end to the United States' decades-long economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba.''