Havana, Jan 28 (IANS/EFE) Cuba has said the US was not making enough effort to improve bilateral relations with the communist country.
President Barack Obama’s administration is not taking basic steps to improve relations, although it has reduced the “anti-Cuban rhetoric” from Washington and eliminated some restrictions on travellers, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said Wednesday.

He said Obama was not using the “prerogatives” he has to lift the 47-year-old economic embargo against Cuba without taking approval from the US Congress.

“Essential” things to improve relations include ending the embargo, removing Cuba from the terrorists-sponsoring nations’ list, nullifying US laws that Havana claims encourage illegal immigration by Cubans and ending support for the internal dissident movement on the island, the minister said at a meeting with Cuban expatriates.

He also called for the end to US-financed radio and television transmissions directed against the communist government and the release of five Cuban intelligence agents imprisoned in the US after being convicted of espionage.

The minister said that the bilateral negotiations were resumed in 2009 on immigration matters and with an eye toward restoring direct mail service between the two countries, the US still has not foresworn “destroying the revolution” that former President Fidel Castro headed in 1959.

–IANS/EFE

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