President Barack Obama Making Preparations For Meeting Castro

While Panama City is the venue of the Summit of the Americas, the administration of President Barack Obama is working to ensure everything goes smoothly, particularly for Cuba, the latest guest of the meeting.

Even as preparations were made, a senior official of the State Department visited Venezuela, the strongest supporter of Cuba. Seven senior Venezuelan officials were sanctioned by the United States due to allegations of abuse against opposition leaders and protestors.

Although the US did not provide any explanations on the visit of Thomas A. Shannon Jr. to Venezuela, a veteran diplomat revealed that the White House does not aim to increase tensions with Caracas. President Nicolas Maduro capitalized on the language used on an executive order announcing the sanctions on the Venezuelan officials.

The Deputy National Security Advisor of President Barack Obama, Ben Rhodes, said the US does not consider Venezuela as a threat to US national security. The language on the order was merely a way of avoiding making Venezuela an enemy of the state, Rhodes added. Venezuela is the fourth largest supplier of foreign oil to the US.

President Barack Obama - image credit: cnn.com

There are also indications that preparations are already being made for the meeting between Cuban President Raul Castro and President Barack Obama on December 11. The two leaders announced that the two countries may renew relations after around five decades of estrangement. The two leaders attended the funeral of Nelson Mandela in December 2013, where they shook hands. The Summit of Americas became a venue to show the upcoming resumption of relations between the two countries.

Senior Latin American studies fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Shannon O’Neil, indicated that symbolism is considered important. The Panama Summit will be the first time Cuba will attend an OAS summit following its suspension in 1962. Cuba maintained its distance from the summit even after the lifting of the suspension in 2009.

O’Neil indicated that removing Cuba as a polarizing issue may improve relations among countries within Latin America. The standoff between the US and Cuba resulted to a number of difficulties that affected a number of countries in the region. The visit of Shannon may also reduce the possibility that Venezuela may replace Cuba as a polarizing issue in the region. Maduro also showed his willingness to ensure smooth relations with the US instead of making it worse.

Even as majority of Americans and Cubans favor the reconciliation efforts of the administration of President Barack Obama, the Cuban exile community does not like the idea. A number of anti-Castro members of Congress have also revealed that they will block any attempts at removing of Cuba from the terror list. However, it appears that the administration of President Barack Obama has not taken notice of these issues as they continue with their preparations for the meeting of the two leaders in December.

Posted by James Fried on Friday April 10 2015, 11:29 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0