Raul Castro

Fidel Castro does not "trust the US, nor have I spoken with them," the revolutionary icon, 88, said in a letter attributed to him and read out on state television on Jan. 26.

Cuban officials sat down Jan. 22 with the highest-level US delegation to visit Havana in 35 years for landmark talks on reopening embassies and thawing long frozen ties.
      

The highest-level U.S. delegation to Cuba in 35 years begins talks on Jan. 21 aimed at restoring diplomatic ties and eventually normalizing relations between two adversaries who have been locked in Cold War-era hostilities.
   

The United States will ease travel and trade restrictions with Cuba on Jan. 15, implementing last month's agreement to begin normalizing ties with the Cold War-era foe.

The number of Cubans trying to reach the US illegally by sea surged in December, after Havana and Washington announced a landmark rapprochement, the US Coast Guard said.
      

Cuban President Raul Castro said Dec. 21 he was ready to discuss any topic with Washington after the historic bilateral rapprochement, but warned not to expect political change.

“We can’t keep doing the same thing for five decades and expect a different result. It’s time for a new approach. We will end an outdated approach that failed to advance our interests and instead begin to normalize relations between our countries.”

The world around us is undergoing many important changes while we sit around stewing in our own juices.

US President Barack Obama is actually talking with Cuba’s Raul Castro, for example, but here in Greece our politicians can’t seem to find any point of agreement even on the most basic issues.

The United States and Cuba made a historic breakthrough in their Cold War stand-off Wednesday, moving to revive diplomatic ties and launch measures to ease a five-decade US trade embargo.

In the wake of a prisoner exchange, President Barack Obama said the United States was ready to review trade ties and to re-open its embassy in communist Cuba that has been closed since 1961.

Yet another revolutionary tradition has been broken in Cuba: A lawmaker voted "no" in parliament.
     
And it wasn't just any lawmaker.