The political thaw would eliminate the dangerous back channels of defection. The impact on the sport could be immense and, in the words of one team official, "drastic."
Despite the unusually close diplomatic ties between Caracas and Havana (even their intelligence services are interlinked), President Nicolás Maduro appears to have been caught completely off guard by this week's dramatic announcement.
Under President Raúl Castro, arbitrary arrests have "increased dramatically" in recent years and detainees are often beaten and threatened in custody, according to Human Rights Watch. On Dec. 10, Universal Human Rights Day, Cuban authorities detained 240 people arbitrarily, according to the dissident group Patriotic Union of Cuba.
As shipping executive Jay Brickman was leaving for Miami International Airport for his 50-minute charter flight to Havana, he had no clue the earth was about to shake under his feet.
The island was a refuge for my Jewish grandparents in the mid-1920s, at a time when the United States was imposing cruel quotas on European Jewish immigration. And I feel a bond, deep and mysterious, to this place, so small and yet so important to modern history.
Among the sharpest memories Guillermo "Bill" Vidal has of being sent from his childhood home in Cuba was waiting in the airport. There he was in 1961, he and his two brothers and so many other kids, distraught, excited, scared, separated from their parents by glass.
MONTERREY, Mexico — Latin American leaders across the political spectrum praised U.S. President Barack Obama's decision announced on Wednesday to reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba, a move that could spark more investment in the Caribbean island and ease Cold War-era resentments throughout the hemisphere.
PARIS – Pope Francis led a chorus of global plaudits for Wednesday's breakthrough in U.S.-Cuban relations, hailed as "historic" in Europe and South America and prompting celebrations on the streets of Havana.
It took six years and months of secret negotiations, but on Wednesday, President Barack Obama finally delivered on a pledge that cuts to the heart of his foreign policy. It's a view of the world that emphasizes pragmatism over ideology, engaging enemies rather than isolating them and setting aside historic grievances in order to reshape the future.
