T Embargo News Today

Raul castro, the president of cuba will also give a News Conference in his country that will happen at noon eastern time. Of course cnn will continue to follow this breaking news throughout the day. Thank you for joining me today, im carol kos toll low. this hour with berman and michaela starts now. Hello, everyone. Im john berman. And. And im michaela pereira. History is being made at this hour after more than a half century of tension and diplomat diplomatic silence between the u. S. Its relea...

Leaders, with the cuban american congressional delegation, both democrat and republican and evan is right. he and i do disagree on some of this. i disagree that the demographics have changed as much as some would like us to believe theyve changed. theyve changed some and after this recent election there were mistaken reports that cuban americans had voted majority for charlie crist and they havent. in fact, if you take a look at florida, theres not one, one statewide elected official that does n...

Years. president obama set to announce with these wide ranging initiatives, really everything he can do outside of the existing legislation. so were talking about a relaxing of travel restrictions for americans that means a general license to travel practically anything of terrorism, a resumption of banking between the u.s. and cuban banks, americans k use credit cards on the island. the president also going to announce expanded commercial and export of sales and goods to cuba. and officials say...

He landed at andrews air force base a little while ago. hes going on now to try to recover the health that was so badly damaged by five years in cuban prison. but theres a much bigger story here, which is a loosening of decades-long restrictions. cubans are still finding out about this basically from u.s. media thats here. they dont have easy access to the internet or regular access to channels like cnn. and raul castro is due to address the nation here any moment now. the cubans still havent be...

Weve come a long way and what is driving this, i think, is demographics, frankly. the fact that you vent v younger cubans that dont feel the embargo has worked. you have older cubans who still support it but younger cubans dont. also since 1980 and the demographic population of students who have come here, theyre economic migrants, not because theyre fleeing political oppression, i think ana and i would disagree on this but that is also driving this. this is why the obama administration feels th...

People say it doesnt seem likely, the congress itself will lift the embargo. there are democrats who oppose this move today. the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, bob menend menendez, put out a statement that said president obamas actions have vindicate it had brutal behavior of the cuban government. whats your reaction to that? >> theres going to be opposition in the congress. i dont think theres any tway congress will relax the embargo in any way so what the president is doin...

Reversem t embargo. the president will try to normalize some relations, there will be an exchange of embassy. well have an embassy in the united states and cuba will have an embassy in washington, d.c. which is remarkable in and of itself. do you see the politics inside zmong theres bipartisan opposition in some quarters. >> the strongest opposition in congress is a few members who are cuban americans who have made it their political mission to block any progressive action. theyre going to have ...

So what the u.s. is saying is this is not a reward for the cuban government. but if you want to increase those changes, if you want to open up cuba, that means you need to engage more with the cuban government and the cuban people. so to that end, the u.s. will be opening an embassy in havana and cuba will be opening up a formal embassy here. this is really the most sweeping overhaul in u.s. policy towards cuba since the embargo was imposed. >> easing of full diplomatic relations, including emba...

Be very partisan at times on other issues, when it comes to the cuba issue, bob ben thmenen ted cruz, ileana ros-lehtinen, mario diaz-balart, they are one front, they are a solid wall. >> what you can see here is theres still a fierce discussion and a fierce debate about u.s. relations with cuba. all i have to say is think about when the u.s. senate needs to confirm the presidents nominee to be the first ambassador cuba. that will be fascinating. ana navarro, evan perez, thank you so much. in ju...

In return washington is freeing three cuban spies convicted in 2001 of espionage. that is big in and of itself. it all seems part now of something much, much bigger. president obama will announce major changes in u.s. policy toward cuba. officials calling them the most sweeping changes since the embargo began more than 50 years ago. >> cuban president raul castro is planning a similar announcement next hour on cuban tv. the big question at this hour, does this foreshadow a return to normal relat...