from Hacker News

Cuba and the U.S. will begin to normalize relations

by coreymgilmore on 12/17/14, 4:35 PM with 264 comments

• by hcentelles on 12/17/14, 10:31 PM

  I'm from Cuba, living in Spain right now.

  The Cuban government is reluctant to open internet access to the people, despite of they already have the needed bandwith through a submarine cable from Venezuela. Is really fascinating how the Cubans have developed a higly optimized offline distribution channel to share dowloaded content like websites, software, video games, tv shows, movies, with almost the same comsuption patterns of the connected world.

  This is a loable move from Obama admnistration and can have a pontentially impact on the near future of cuban internet. The White House fact sheet (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/17/fact-s...) said:

  "Telecommunications providers will be allowed to establish the necessary mechanisms, including infrastructure, in Cuba to provide commercial telecommunications and internet services, which will improve telecommunications between the United States and Cuba."

  If Cuban government allow this kind of companies to do business on or with Cuba, that could be huge. But if happens, this could be very slow, sadly.

  Disclosure: I'm the cofounder of some Cuba related startups, a classifieds ads site censored by the Cuba government https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUmPkb44n_w, they block us by ip and dns, despite of the censorship, revolico is one of the most visited sites in the country, taking into account that cuba has a 5% internet penetration. Also a atypical remittances platform https://www.fonoma.com and crowfunding site for cuban artists shutted down by the USA goverment because of the kind of restriction that they are softening today http://www.yagruma.org

• by iandanforth on 12/17/14, 5:03 PM

  I've visited Cuba on a Canadian passport. Aside from the beautiful beaches the thing that struck me most was the desperate poverty of people living in shacks outside the 5 star resorts.

  While I hesitate to predict that this change will be all for the good, I do believe that the poorest in Cuba will benefit significantly from increased trade.

• by valarauca1 on 12/17/14, 5:00 PM

  This is actually (amusingly) incredibly unpopular in cigar circles who are calling this the "end of an era".

  Most discussions seems to center around the doom and gloom of quality dropping and prices increasing as the US/Cuban cigar market opens and the demand for CC increases.

  No discussion on the legality of owning CC changing amusingly. As apparently everyone forgets that smoking a Cuban Cigar can be considered an act of treason currently.

• by joezydeco on 12/17/14, 5:21 PM

  The timing seems really clever here.

  The USA and OPEC flood the market with oil (literally), crashing prices and sending the Ruble into a spiral. Just as Cuba starts to worry about Russian support going forward, the USA swoops in to provide some economic bracing.

• by lumberjack on 12/17/14, 6:15 PM

  Since this is HN, does anyone know what the IT sector is like in Cuba?

  Apparently they have a university dedicated to IT stuff[1] but I don't read Spanish and I couldn't really find any projects/research page on there. The only thing that seems to be portrayed is a Linux distro called Nova.[2]

  [1] http://www.uci.cu/ [2] http://www.nova.cu/

• by jmr0 on 12/17/14, 8:06 PM

  My parents and I left Cuba when I was a child and proceeded to live in various parts of the world before eventually settling in the US. I would like to go back and visit some relatives there at some point, and as a Cuban-born naturalized American citizen I know it is legal for me to do so even currently, but I was informed that I couldn't actually enter Cuba with only an American passport. The Cuban govt requires that I enter as a Cuban citizen, which means obtaining a Cuban passport that costs $200 to renew every 2 years [0]. I'm sure this is mostly just an easy way of extracting money, but I sure look forward to official diplomatic relations being established and hope some of these requirements change -- I don't feel very comfortable entering Cuba as a Cuban citizen and not knowing where my rights end or begin.

  [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_passport

• by skywhopper on 12/17/14, 7:06 PM

  I'm thrilled to see this. This is the sort of hopey changey I was looking for from Obama. Maintaining the status quo in re Cuba is just mindless stubbornness at this point.

• by sremani on 12/17/14, 5:10 PM

  In 2008 G W Bush has removed North Korea from Embargo list, and embargo has to be renewed every year based on "some" Enemy Act of 1917. Cuba is the only country in US embargo list, I understand it is personal as Cuba is just few miles away from US, but still the embargo is inhumane and people are suffering. John Oliver has a very interesting piece on his HBO show.

• by JSeymourATL on 12/17/14, 7:03 PM

  > The changes follow a rare private intercession by Pope Francis, the Catholic Church’s first Latin-American pontiff, secret meetings between Cuban and American delegations at the Vatican. *Hit-tip to Pope Francis...bien hecho.

• by beloch on 12/17/14, 9:47 PM

  First, it's important to note that the economic sanctions on Cuba require the action of the Senate to be lifted. That's virtually a foregone conclusion however.

  U.S. policy usually tends to favour business. That's why the economic sanctions on Cuba were bound to be removed sooner or later. At present, there are some products (e.g. compressors and other items requiring a large foundry to produce) that are very difficult and expensive to get in Cuba because most companies that produce them are either American or owned by American companies. Smaller companies from countries such as Canada have made a practice of "bootlegging" for the Cubans. In recent years it has not been uncommon for a compressor skid to be produced in Texas, shipped to Alberta via rail, shipped to the East coast through Canada via rail, and finally shipped to Cuba.

  The reason sanctions against Cuba are finally being dropped is probably related to the death or extreme old age of most everyone who can remember having property snatched away from them when the Cubans nationalized everything after the revolution. Subsequent generations of Cubans and americans have been brought up to distrust each other though. It won't be as easy as some think for U.S. companies to march back into Cuba and set up shop again. Companies that have been quietly running mines and building power plants for the Cubans over the last few decades will likely have the edge. It's going to take time and patience for trust to be restored.

• by arenaninja on 12/17/14, 5:15 PM

  I hope this doesn't out me as short-sighted, but I'm looking forward to a vacation there in the near future!

• by xyahoo on 12/17/14, 7:52 PM

  There's more to the Cuban embargo than meets the eye. It is true that the Southern Florida Cuban exile community wields a disproportional amount of influence. Florida is almost equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, and is a big state in terms of electoral votes; so when a sizeable block like the Cuban exiles votes a certain way, it can tip the balance.

  However, that is not the entire story. If we (US) were really that concerned about the lost property of the Cubans expelled by Castro, we would also look inward and ponder the fate of the British supporters kicked out in 1776; the KMT supporters kicked out by Mao; etc.

  If we can trade with China, Russia, etc. then there's no reason we can't trade with Cuba. In fact, the opening of the borders with USSR is often listed as one of the key factors in bringing it down; so why not do the same with Cuba?

• by jstalin on 12/17/14, 4:52 PM

  Outstanding. This is long overdue.

• by peterwwillis on 12/17/14, 7:29 PM

  It's kind of funny, but this won't actually bring all warm-n-fuzzies from the people most affected by it. The refugees/dissidents in Miami are saying this isn't going to change anything because it allows the Castro regime to double down on economic growth from new business relations with the US. The non-refugees are saying this will make immigration worse. The people both on the island and those illegally importing products into the country from Miami may face higher prices and tighter restrictions. And if political reform comes, it could be at the cost of dismantling the relatively strong public health and education systems.

• by flyinghamster on 12/17/14, 8:03 PM

  I get the feeling that the embargo will last until Fidel reaches room temperature.

  I do find it interesting that in recent years, Bacardi has been playing up its Cuban heritage. I suspect that they're itching to get back, but that whole issue of returning confiscated property stands in the way. Will Cuba end up with something like the Treuhandanstalt in post-reunification Germany?

• by Shivetya on 12/18/14, 12:48 AM

  I figure the last two years of President Obama's term are going to be one wild ride. He has clearly shown he could not if he harms others in his party politically and he certainly could care less what the Republicans think.

  Freed from any need to cooperate; now that Republicans are in control; with Congress its going to be fun. Why do I say no need, with Reid in charge of the Senate he had to play by party rules, he is free of that.

  Some moves will definitely be for the good, some may not be. Regardless it should be chaotic if not fun to watch

• by jpatokal on 12/17/14, 11:01 PM

  The line about opening an embassy in Cuba as soon as possible is a bit funny, since the US has long had an embassy in all but name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Interests_Sectio...

  And while that's technically only a "section" of the Swiss embassy, a glance at a photo of the place makes it pretty clear that there's a bit more going on.

• by raldi on 12/17/14, 7:28 PM

  What are we going to do about all the trademark conflicts? US rum and cigar companies stole the brand names of famous Cuban companies, because they knew they could get away with it.

  To see what I mean, Ctrl-F dueling on http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cigar_brands

• by Hermel on 12/17/14, 10:02 PM

  And as I said a while ago in my most downvoted comment ever (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8442817), Sherritt stocks will go through the roof in case relations start to normalize. And they did today, with +25%.

• by Zhenya on 12/17/14, 9:44 PM

  Russia gets North Korea - US goes for Cuba in almost the same day. Interesting.

• by glup on 12/17/14, 7:16 PM

  The title of the Bloomberg article "Cuba’s Half Century of Isolation to End" perpetuates a major misconception for US citizens. Cuba isn't isolated from the rest of the world (in the manner that North Korea is) -- it's just the US and Cuba. The island is fully connected as a tourist destination for Canadians, Latin Americans, and Europeans and they import consumer goods from Korea, China, Vietnam, etc. There are major differences (e.g. the military apparatus has controlling interests in nearly all business ventures, including those with foreign firms) but "isolation" is a pretty inaccurate characterization.

• by spacefight on 12/17/14, 4:53 PM

  Nice. Whats's next? Close Gitmo? Give back the lease?

• by unprepare on 12/17/14, 5:02 PM

  I have to think this is related to tensions with Russia and avoiding a second missile crisis. I wonder if there will be a reaction from Russia about this news.