12-18-15 u.s.-cuba relations

A professor of Latin American politics at Ripon College who visited Cuba three years ago as part of a higher education program says he believes strides are being made in normalizing relations with Cuba.  Thurssday marked the one year anniversary of President Barack Obama’s announcement that the U.S. was re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba.   Professor Marty Farrell says the U.S. is close to an agreement with Cuba on restoring regular commercial flights between the countries, and have struck a deal to re-establish direct mail service.  Farrell says while he thinks the economic embargo against Cuba will eventually go away, there are still political obstacles.  “Even a transitional government can’t be recognized if it has any member of the Castro family in it, so that’s going to be difficult to overcome.  I think its just best to take it one step at a time,”  Farrell told WFDL news.   Farrell says another important step is that relatives of Cubans are now able to send  unlimited amounts of money to their relatives in Cuba.  Another sign of warming relations happened this week when a group of Cuban-born baseball stars who left their country to play in the major leagues returned to Cuba.