Havana, December 24 (RHC)-- An editorial in yet another influential U.S. newspaper, Houston Chronicle, has called for the end of the U.S. blockade on Cuba, arguing that even a majority of Cuban-Americans believe it is time for the U.S. to resume trade with its neighboring Caribbean state.
“One year since President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced that their two long-estranged countries would normalize relations, some significant improvements have been made, but the most important work remains to be done,” reads the editorial.
The editorial then points to what it calls the most important pending issue: the U.S. blockade imposed by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1962, which remains in place, calling it “a major hurdle to good relations between the two countries.”
The editorial in the Houston Chronicle refers to what it describes as a couple of interesting effects of the U.S.-Cuba rapprochement. “One is that Americans, a rare sight in Cuba for most of the past half century, are visiting the Caribbean country in growing numbers. U.S. diplomats there are expecting a 50-percent increase in U.S tourists this year.”
The other effect, the editorial says, is the migration of Cubans into Central America trying to get to the U.S., where, “unlike other immigrants from Latin America, they are welcomed with open arms by U.S. authorities due to the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966.”
According to the U.S. newspaper, these Cuban immigrants fear that improved U.S.-Cuba relations may end their special status and want to get there before the doors close.
The editorial in the Houston Chronicle highlights a recent poll by a Miami firm that has surveyed Cuban Americans for years, which found that a majority of them - 53 percent - believe it is time to end the blockade.
“We agree,” says the editorial in the Houston Chronicle and called on the U.S. Congress to end the blockade as quickly as possible so that American businesses can fully access the Cuban market and commercial ties between the two countries can grow.
