By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 20:39:00 01/19/2009
Filed Under: Foreign affairs & international relations, Conflicts (general)
MANILA, Philippines -- Cuba is adopting a wait-and-see attitude on how a
Barack Obama presidency will affect the cold relations between the
Caribbean nation and the United States.
Describing Obama as "very intelligent," Cuban Ambassador to the
Philippines Jorge Rey Jimenez said he and his fellow Cubans will "wait
and see if he's capable and allowed to" do what needs to be done, not
only about problems confronting Americans, particularly the global
financial crisis, but also about US relations with Cuba.
Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, and
its first black chief executive.
"We are ready to talk without preconditions, on equal footing…We are not
in a hurry to resolve our difference with US. We have proven with 50
years of resistance, we are in a position to wait 50 more years,"
Jimenez said in an interview during the 50th Cuban National Day.
"With the wealth of history and time, and the unity of our people…we are
in the best position to talk. But let's wait and see [what Obama will
do]. We are not in a hurry," he added.
The Cuban ambassador said he was referring not only to Obama's promise
to close the controversial detention center for terror suspects at the
US base in Guantanamo, Cuba, but also on reversing two actions by
outgoing President George W. Bush which Jimenez said worsened relations
between the two countries -- barring US citizens of Cuban heritage from
visiting their homeland more than once in three years, and barring them
from sending home more than $300 every three months.
He said: "We don't want to be pessimistic about it, but if he can do it,
then Cuba is ready to talk" about the damaged diplomatic relations
between the two countries, which are only 90 miles from each other.
"If Obama will close Guantanamo during his first week of tenure, then
that would be a good gesture," he said.
Jimenez said the other bilateral topics that can be on the agenda in any
talks between Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro are cooperation on
civil defense, natural disasters, and medicine.
But the bottom line for Cuba, he said, is the lifting of the 50-year
economic blockade imposed by the US on Cuba. Despite this blockade, the
ambassador said Cuba has been able to achieve accomplishments in
education, health, social security, sports, and culture.
He noted that last year, the United Nations General Assembly voted 185-3
for the lifting of the blockade; the three that voted against the
lifting were the US, Israel, and Palau.
"[The assumption of a new president] is a very important act, a very
important moment in the case of the US…But that doesn't mean that that
day will change the history of humankind. [What will change the history
of humankind] is the behavior [of] and whatever the new president will
make of humankind," Jimenez said.
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