Biden may go to Cuba to close issue of confiscated properties, source says

Biden may go to Cuba to close issue of confiscated properties, source says
BY RICHARD DANIELSON AND PAUL GUZZO
Tampa Bay Times

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TAMPA
When Vice President Joe Biden speaks on U.S. policy in the Western
Hemisphere at the University of Tampa today, it will mark the latest
installment in an ongoing conversation involving the Obama White House
and Tampa's business community.

Last month, the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce got a call from the
Obama administration asking if the chamber could host the speech –
preferably at a location with character and a backstory.

Chamber leaders chose the University of Tampa, originally built by
railroad baron Henry B. Plant as the Tampa Bay Hotel. In 1898, the hotel
served as a military headquarters of Cuba-centric planning during the
Spanish-American War. For more than a century since, its Moorish
minarets have laid claim to topping Tampa's most distinctive local landmark.

"You just walk in there, you feel the history," chamber president and
CEO Bob Rohrlack said.

Today's speech comes as the Obama administration works on a list of
unresolved issues that accompany its opening to Cuba, which has come to
dominate discussion of U.S. policy in Latin America.

John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council,
said he's hearing from those "actively close to the Cuba issue" that
Biden may go to Cuba by the end of the year.

The purpose of the trip, Kavulich said, would be for Biden to serve as a
"closer" on negotiating settlements of certified claims that U.S.
citizens and businesses have against Havana for private property in the
1960s.

Nearly 6,000 claims total almost $2 billion.

On another front, experts tell the Tampa Bay Times that the United
States and Cuba are working on an agreement that would allow them to
work together if an oil spill threatened either.

Part of that agreement would be expected to include arrangements for
joint training exercises involving the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard along
with their Cuban counterparts.

Oil spill mitigation in the Caribbean is a familiar topic for Biden.
Last week, he chaired the U.S.-Caribbean-Central American Energy Summit,
a meeting of energy ministers and national leaders from around the
region. While the meeting did not include Cuba, its agenda did call for
promoting environmental safety.

In Tampa, discussions between the chamber and the administration go back
two years.

After the chamber's first mission to Cuba, a local delegation met with
Biden in the West Wing to emphasize "how supportive we were and still
are of broadening the relationship" with Cuba.

That group included Rohrlack, then chamber chairman Greg Celestan,
future chairman Ronald Christaldi, and board members Patrick Baskette
and Vince Cassidy.

The group had recently returned from its first mission to Cuba and
talked about the importance of transportation, both via Tampa
International Airport and Port Tampa Bay.

Afterward, Biden asked the Tampa representatives to elaborate on their
experience in and impressions of Cuba with members of his foreign policy
team, Rohrlack said.

And after that, Tampa business leaders kept in touch with Biden's
office. The Tampa chamber was one of 15 nationwide selected to receive
White House briefings on three topics chosen by the chamber.

Tampa's leaders chose international affairs, transportation and health
care, Rohrlack said. All have been points of focus for the chamber as it
has organized two subsequent trips to Cuba.

"It has been an ongoing conversation advocating for business and how to
keep the economy strong," Rohrlack said. He does not expect that Biden's
speech will touch on the location of a future Cuban consulate, which
both Tampa and St. Petersburg want. "There's still a lot more that has
to be done on that."

Source: Biden may go to Cuba to close issue of confiscated properties,
source says | In Cuba Today -
http://www.incubatoday.com/news/article76987687.html