Cuba urges US to ‘dismantle’ economic sanctions
Cuban President Raul Castro has called on his US counterpart Barack Obama to lift the more than 50-year-old economic sanctions placed on Havana.
“We hope (Obama) will continue to use his executive powers to dismantle aspects of this policy, which is causing damage and hardships for our people,” Castro said on Wednesday.
Castro described the trade embargo as the main stumbling block towards the “normalization” of ties between Havana and Washington.
Castro’s comments come ahead of the formal re-establishment of diplomatic relations and the opening of embassies between the two countries on Monday.
Monday “will begin a new stage, long and complex, on the way to the normalization of relations, which will require finding solutions to problems that have accumulated over more than five decades and affect the ties between our countries and people,” he said.
Earlier in December 2014, Obama announced that Washington will start talks with Cuba to normalize diplomatic relations, marking the most significant shift in US foreign policy towards the communist country in over 50 years.
The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, two years after Raul’s older brother, Fidel Castro, came to power.
Washington imposed an official embargo against Havana in 1962. Although relations have improved in recent months, the US trade embargo remains in place.
The Republican-dominated Congress has so far refused Obama's request to lift the longstanding embargo.
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