It has been just seven months since the United States and Cuba began to talk and now, as a result of the progress made, Washington and Havana are to reopen their respective embassies by July 20. Who would have thought that these old Cold War adversaries across the Florida Straits would make so much progress in so little time after so many years of mistrust.
Barely five decades ago, the very prospect of Soviet-supplied nuclear missiles planted on Cuban soil and aimed at targets across the North American continent brought the entire world to the brink of atomic annihilation. And even though a die-hard anti-Fidel Castro Cuban lobby remains strong and vociferous in America, there can be no turning the clock back now to the days of Cold War confrontations.
That anti-Castro lobby will still press for a return to democracy in Cuba, but with how many undemocratic countries does Washington now enjoy warm and friendly relations? Yes, there are issues, but having relations taken out of deep freeze and restored to an almost-normal status is indeed a most-welcome development.
This whole new era in US-Cuban relations was kick-started by Pope Francis. With embassies about to reopen and an exchange of ambassadors likely to happen sooner rather than later, the only remaining hurdles across the Florida Straits are the status of the US naval base at Guantanamo on the southwest corner of the island and the lingering trade embargo against Cuba.
