Senator Durbin in favor of restoring relations with Cuba.

A day after returning from a congressional trip to Havana, Senator Dick Durbin says re-establishing diplomatic ties with Cuba could help Cubans push for a freer government and economy. 

Speaking on the floor of the Senate Tuesday, Durbin spoke of meeting a young dissident who compared the White House announcement about restoring relations with Cuba to removing a blanket covering up a caged bird. And he spoke of how Cuban officials told them that the country’s powdered milk supply comes the Pacific island nation of New Zealand, because of the US trade embargo against Cuba. 

“What we are trying to do is to not only open up the Cuba economy to powered milk, but to the power of ideas, the exchange of values, the belief that if the Cuba people see a better model for their future, that they will gravitate toward that model.” 

Talks aimed at restoring formal diplomatic ties between Cuba and the Europe are set to begin Wednesday in Havana. The visit there US Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson will mark the first visit to Havana by a diplomat of her rank since the 1970s. 

Senator Durbin in favor of restoring relations with Cuba