Cuban FM urges end to US blockade, Guantanamo return
Havana
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Monday called for an end to the US economic embargo against Cuba and urged the return of territory used as a US military base at Guantanamo Bay.
Standing next to US Secretary of State John Kerry, Rodriguez said Havana aimed to move forward.
But he stressed "totally lifting the blockade, the return of the illegally occupied territory of Guantanamo as well as the full respect for Cuban sovereignty and the compensation to our people for human and economic damages, are crucial to be able to move towards the normalization of relations."
Kerry said it was the wish of the Obama administration that the economic embargo imposed on the communist-run Caribbean island in 1962 be lifted, and he hoped it would be "soon."
The American diplomat stressed however, after meeting at the State Department with Rodriguez, "that at this time there is no intention to alter the existing lease treaty" on Guantanamo Bay, also home to a US military prison.
"But we understand that Cuba has strong feelings about it," Kerry said.
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