French president visits Cuba and urges end to US embargo
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FRENCH President Francois Hollande yesterday called for an end to the US embargo on Cuba during a historic visit to the island nation, the first by a Western leader since Washington and Havana moved to restore ties.
Speaking on the half-century embargo at the start of his Cuba trip, the first by a French leader, Hollande said France will do whatever possible to see that “the measures that have so badly harmed Cuba’s development can finally be lifted, repealed.”
Hollande said his trip came “at a particularly important but also uncertain time,” as both the United States and the European Union seek to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba.
France will do what it can to “see that opening reaffirmed,” he said in a speech at the University of Havana.
Since announcing in December that the US and Cuba would move to renew ties after more than half a century, US President Barack Obama has used his executive authority to relax several aspects of the embargo, including restrictions on travel and sending money to the island.
He has called on Congress to lift the full embargo, in place since 1962, but with both houses under Republican control, he faces an uphill political battle.
Cuba says the embargo, which it refers to as “the blockade,” has cost it more than US$100 billion.
Hollande also urged Cuba to open up its economy, saying there was vast interest in doing business with the island.
France is seeking to “be the first among European nations, and the first among Western nations, to be able to say to the Cubans that we will be at their side if they decide themselves to take needed steps toward opening up,” he told reporters before arriving in Havana on Sunday evening.
Cuban President Raul Castro has presided over gradual economic and social reforms since taking over in 2006 from his older brother Fidel, the leader of the 1959 revolution that ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista and eventually made Cuba a one-party communist state.
Hollande’s office has said he is available to meet Fidel Castro as well, but Havana has not confirmed face-to-face talks.
The French leader hit again on the theme of “openness” as he bestowed France’s highest honor on the head of the Catholic Church in Cuba, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, a key figure in the island’s growing rapprochement with the West.
“You continue to stand for the opening of Cuba,” he said, praising Ortega’s role in mediating with Cuba’s government, including during the US rapprochement talks and negotiations for the release of some 130 political prisoners in 2010.
Hollande said it filled him with “great emotion” to be the first French leader to visit Cuba since it gained independence in 1898.
Several agreements will be signed during the trip, though details were not made public.
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