United States–Cuban thaw

The Cuban thaw ( es, Deshielo cubano) was the normalization of Cuba–United States relations that began in December 2014 ending a 54-year stretch of hostility between the nations. In March 2016, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge, in 1928.

On December 17, 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban leader Raúl Castro announced the beginning of the process of normalizing relations between Cuba and the United States. The normalization agreement was secretly negotiated in preceding months, facilitated by Pope Francis and largely hosted by the Government of Canada. Meetings were held in both Canada and Vatican City. The agreement would see the lifting of some U.S. travel restrictions, fewer restrictions on remittances, U.S. banks' access to the Cuban financial system, and the reopening of the U.S. embassy in Havana and the Cuban embassy in Washington, which both closed in 1961 after the breakup of diplomatic relations as a result of Cuba's close alliance with the USSR.

On April 14, 2015, the Obama administration announced that Cuba would be removed from the United States State Sponsors of Terrorism list. With no congressional action to block this within the permitted time period, Cuba was officially removed from the list on May 29, 2015. This marked a further departure by the United States from the Cold War conflict and its strain on Cuba–United States relations. On July 20, 2015, the Cuban and U.S. " interests sections" in Washington and Havana were upgraded to embassies.

On June 16, 2017, President Donald Trump stated that he was "canceling" the Obama administration's deals with Cuba, while also expressing that a new deal could be negotiated between the Cuban and United States governments. On November 8, 2017, it was announced that some travel restrictions which were loosened by the Obama administration would resume, and that fresh restrictions would be imposed on "direct financial transactions" with certain businesses belonging to the Cuban armed forces and interior ministries and would go into effect on November 9. Further changes were made in 2019, but many of the changes made in 2015 remain in effect.

In 2022, the Biden administration announced new changes that reverse Trump's measures toward Cuba, such as the elimination of the limit on family remittances and the expansion of staff at the Havana embassy to process visas.

Prisoner exchange

In May 2012, it was reported that the U.S. had declined a "spy swap" proposed by the Cuban government, wherein the remaining three of an original group of Cuban prisoners the U.S. had convicted of espionage known as the Cuban Five, in prison in the U.S. since the 1990s, would be returned to Cuba in exchange for USAID contractor Alan Gross. Gross had been imprisoned in Cuba for providing illegal cellphone chips of a type used by CIA agents, which are designed to evade detection, in addition to computer equipment, satellite phones, and internet access to Cuba's Jewish community.

Despite initial U.S. refusals, the prisoner swap eventually took place in December 2014 following the President's announcement of intent to move towards normalized relations. In addition to Gross, the swap included Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, a Cuban who had worked as an agent for American intelligence and had been in a Cuban prison for nearly 20 years. Additionally, in early January 2015, the Cuban government began releasing a number of imprisoned dissidents, as requested by the United States. On January 12, 2015, it was reported that all 53 dissidents had been released.

The prisoner swap marked the biggest shift in White House policy towards Cuba since the imposition of the embargo in 1962, and removed a key obstacle to bilateral relations. Since the exchange, Gross has become a vocal advocate of the normalization of relations, even offering to visit Cuba again in support of such a result.

Easing of travel and trade restrictions

Although the Cuban trade embargo can only be ended by the U.S. Congress, the Obama administration took executive action to ease some restrictions on travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens, as well as restrictions on the import and export of goods between each country. In his 2015 State of the Union Address to Congress, Obama called on lawmakers to lift the embargo against Cuba, a message he reiterated in 2016.

In February 2015, Conan O'Brien became the third American television personality to film in Cuba in more than half a century (the first being Michael Moore's ''Sicko'' in 2007 and the second being Anthony Bourdain's ''No Reservations'' in 2011). In May 2015, the Minnesota Orchestra performed several concerts in Havana, the first professional U.S. orchestra to play in Cuba since 1999.

Major League Baseball (MLB) held talks about playing spring training games in Cuba in 2015, but lacked time to arrange them. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said on March 19, 2015, that the league would likely play an exhibition game in Cuba sometime in early 2016 and on March 22, 2016, the Tampa Bay Rays played an exhibition game against the Cuban national team at Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana with Presidents Obama and Castro in attendance.

Sun Country Airlines began operating charter flights between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Havana's José Martí International Airport in March 2015. On May 5, 2015, the United States granted approval to four companies to offer chartered ferry service between Miami and Cuba. In March 2016, Carnival Cruise Line received permission from Cuba to resume cruises from Miami to Havana for the first time in fifty years. Cuba, however, still prohibited the Cuban-born from returning by sea, and Carnival therefore refused to accept reservations from the Cuban-born. Following public protests against such an exclusionary policy, Carnival told the Cuban authorities it would not sail unless the policy was changed, the Cuban government relented, and the first Carnival cruise sailed from Miami on May 1, 2016.

Between January and May 2015, the number of Americans visiting Cuba who had no family ties there was 36% higher than during the same months in 2014. A report by the Pew Research Center found that the number of Cubans entering the U.S. in 2015 was 78% higher than in 2014.

Normalization of relations

It has been said that the United States–Cuban thaw was spurred by Cuba's main international partner, Venezuela, experiencing sharp economic decline. Venezuela subsidized the government of Cuba, however following the oil price drop resulting from the 2010s oil glut, could no longer afford to do so. (see also '' Pink tide#Decline'')

Bilateral talks

On January 21, 2015, the United States and Cuba began bilateral talks in Havana to discuss further normalization issues. The U.S. delegation led by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roberta S. Jacobson, and Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, Cuba's head of North American affairs, sat down for the first day of closed-door talks in the capital's Convention Center. The talks reportedly centered around migration policy. In particular, Cuban representatives urged the U.S. to end its immigration privileges to Cuban refugees, also known as the wet feet, dry feet policy, which allows any fleeing Cuban citizens U.S. residency and citizenship, as long as they are found on U.S. soil and not at sea. Reuters reported that civilian uncertainty about the status of U.S. immigration policy following the thaw was promoting a surge of emigrants fleeing Cuba for the U.S.

In regard to U.S. interests, the U.S. delegation made it clear that "improved human rights conditions, including freedom of expression and assembly", remain a central element of U.S. policy in normalizing U.S.–Cuban relations. Furthermore, despite Cuban objections, the U.S. stated that it will stand by its Cuban migration policy under the Cuban Adjustment Act.

A second round of talks took place in Washington, D.C., late in February 2015. Negotiators described the talks as productive and said several issues were close to resolution. However, the issue of Cuba's listing among state sponsors of terrorism by the U.S. government remained a significant sticking point, although Cuban diplomat Josefina Vidal said its removal was not strictly a precondition to reopening embassies.

A third round of talks were held in Havana from March 16–17, 2015. However, the talks ended abruptly after just a day, without any public comment. Obama and Castro themselves met at the Summit of the Americas in Panama on April 10–11, where Castro delivered an address praising Obama and apologizing for blaming his government for the ongoing U.S. embargo. After meeting with Obama, Castro called for the reopening of the embassies, while both presidents said they were looking forward to more direct engagement between Cuba and the United States despite their differences.

The Vatican and Pope Francis played a symbolic but substantial role in helping facilitate the normalization of diplomatic relation between the U.S. and Cuba. The Catholic Church has remained in close cooperation with Havana even after the 1959 revolution.

"State sponsor of terrorism" designation

In addition to Cuba's concern over U.S. migration policy, the Cuban delegation assured the U.S. that normalization talks would not yield significant changes unless Cuba is removed from the U.S. State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. Cuba was one of four countries on the list, the other three being Iran, Sudan, and Syria. The U.S. government said that it had begun an intelligence review in order to evaluate whether Cuba can be removed from the list.

On April 14, 2015, President Obama informed the U.S. Congress that he had decided to lift the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism because "the government of Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism during the preceding six-month period", and it "has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future". The U.S. Congress could have blocked this by passing legislation within 45 days, but no member of Congress even introduced such legislation, and Cuba was officially removed from the list on May 29, 2015.

Cuban governmental bank account

On May 20, 2015, the Cuban government opened a bank account in the United States, enabling it to do non-cash business in the United States for the first time since the embargo began.

Embassies

Cuba and the United States officially resumed full diplomatic relations at midnight on July 20, 2015, with the " Cuban interests section" in Washington, D.C., and the " U.S. interests section" in Havana being upgraded to embassies. A ceremony was held at the Cuban Embassy to raise the flag of Cuba, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla holding a joint news conference afterward at which they emphasized both the step forward in bilateral relations and the remaining political differences between the Cuban and U.S. governments. Kerry flew to Cuba in late July for a ceremony at which the flag of the United States was raised over the US Embassy in Havana. Cuban dissidents, however, were not invited to attend the flag raising ceremony.

Guantanamo Bay controversy

On January 28, 2015, while attending a meeting of Latin American leaders in San José, Costa Rica, Cuban leader Raúl Castro asserted that the United States should return the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and lift the embargo on Cuba if relations were to be considered fully normalized.

The White House responded the next day, saying that it had no intention to return the base. White House spokesman Josh Earnest