Cuban state news agency restarts operations in Washington

Cuban state news agency restarts operations in Washington
AFP April 28, 2017

Washington (AFP) - Cuba's state news agency Prensa Latina officially
restarted journalism operations in the US capital of Washington on
Friday, unfreezing 50 years of inactivity and marking another step in
the rapprochement between America and the Communist island.

"The agency had a functioning office in Washington from 1959 to 1967,"
even after the US cut diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, one of the
Cuban journalists in the bureau, Diony Sanabria, told AFP.

Its reopening was made possible under a 2014 thaw in relations agreed by
then-US president Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro, which has
already seen the return of each country's embassy operations in the
other two years ago.

Prensa Latina's chief, Luis Enrique Gonzalez, was participating in the
agency's reopening ceremony Friday.

Although the Obama-Castro deal has relaxed tensions dating back to the
Cold War and restored ties, the easing of many American sanctions on
Cuba is dependent on the US Congress.

With the arrival of President Donald Trump in the White House and the
dominance of his Republican party in both houses of the legislature, the
future of the bilateral thaw is seen to be under a cloud of uncertainty.

Source: Cuban state news agency restarts operations in Washington -
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cuban-state-news-agency-restarts-operations-washington-170120189.html