Page 14 - Patrick Oppman News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Be full-fledged embassies, an american ambassador in havana, a cuban ambassador here in washington. not just diplomatic interest sections but embassies and all that means a normalization of diplomatic relations, in other words. cnn is covering these seismic developments as only cnn can. our patrick ottman is the only reporter there. elise labott is standing by live. alina machado, jim sciutto, evan perez and our white house correspondent, jim acosta. let's go to havana first. patrick is on the scene, the only u.s. television correspondent in havana. tell us, patrick, what's going on right now ...

Arrangement is is coming into playwright now. we want to go live to patrick oppman in havana, cnn is the only u.s. network with presence in cuba. patrick, a wul castro, the president, the leader of cuba is expected to speak in just a little while. what is he expected to say? >> we'll probably hear more details about this historic agreement came through. just came through in the last 24 hours. i understand from a pr company that works for alan gross's attorney, some of the ticktock of what happened here. alan gross was only in formed yesterday that he would be freed and i'm told that he didn't ...

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 relations with the island nation, a country that has been a thorn in washington's side since fidel castro...

American soil but also about the potential for new relations with cuba. >> well, this is very personal for me because in 2011 i went to cuba to try to get alan gross out and i was unable to. they wanted the five cuban political prisoners, the five spies in the u.s. and the u.s. -- neither country was ready to do it. so this is huge. alan gross was the impediment for the u.s./cuba relationship improving. so now that that has been cleared away i think president obama is looking at his legacy and saying in lat tip america getting rid of this irritant of the u.s.-cuba relationship where we're not ...

Embargo because congress has to improve softening of the trade embargo. this was the helms-burton act several years ago that basically said the president doesn't have the executive authority to do this without going to the congress. but this is huge. this is the legacy stuff for president obama and my hope is that we zero in on -- this is good but cuba needs to improve its human rights position, needs to release political prisoners, allow the internet in, allow more freedoms there. hopefully this is going to happen with this release, but this was the linchpin, the release of alan gross for the...