By PETER
ORSI
Associated
Press
It
was the briefest of moments, just seconds, two presidents shaking hands and
exchanging pleasantries amid a gaggle of world leaders together to honor the
late Nelson Mandela.
It
would hardly have been noteworthy, except the men locking hands in Johannesburg
were Barack Obama and Raul Castro, whose nations have been mired in Cold War
antagonism for more than five decades.
A
single, cordial gesture is unlikely to wash away bad blood dating back to the
Eisenhower administration. But in a year that has seen both sides take small
steps at improving the relationship, the handshake stoked talk of further
rapprochement.
"On
the one hand you shouldn't make too much of this. Relations between Cuba and
the United States are not changing tomorrow because they shook hands,"
said Geoff Thale, a Cuba analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a
U.S.-based think tank.
He
contrasted the moment to a 2002 development summit where then-Mexican President
Vicente Fox asked Fidel Castro to leave to avoid having him in the same room as
U.S. President George W. Bush.
"What's
really striking here is the contrast," Thale said. "It's a modestly
hopeful sign, and it builds on the small steps that they're taking."
Not
everyone was so happy about it.
"Sometimes
a handshake is just a handshake, but when the leader of the free world shakes
the bloody hand of a ruthless dictator like Raul Castro, it becomes a
propaganda coup for the tyrant," said Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a
Cuban-American congresswoman from Florida who until January 2013 was chairwoman
of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Obama
and Castro's encounter was the first of its kind between sitting U.S. and Cuban
presidents since Bill Clinton and Fidel shook hands at the U.N. in 2000.
It
came as Obama greeted a line of world leaders on his way to the podium for a
speech at the memorial.
Obama
also had a cheek-kiss for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. The two have
clashed over reports the National Security Agency monitored her communications,
leading the Brazilian leader to shelve a state trip to the U.S. earlier this
year.
In
another potentially uneasy exchange, Obama briefly greeted Afghan President
Hamid Karzai, whose refusal to sign a security agreement with the U.S. before
year's end has irritated the administration.
Obama
adviser Ben Rhodes said the handshakes were not planned in advance and didn't
involve any substantive discussion. "The president didn't see this as a
venue to do business," he told reporters traveling back to Washington
aboard Air Force One.
By
shaking Castro's hand, Obama sent a message of openness that echoes a speech he
gave at a Democratic fundraiser in Miami last month.
"We
have to continue to update our policies," he said then. "Keep in mind
that when (Fidel) Castro came to power, I was just born. So the notion that the
same policies that we put in place in 1961 would somehow still be as effective
as they are today in the age of the Internet and Google and world travel doesn't
make sense."
As
president, Obama has lifted limits on how often Cuban-Americans can visit
family back on the island, and how much they can send home in remittances. He
also reinstated "people-to-people" cultural exchange tours to Cuba.
The result is more than a half-million U.S. visitors to the island each year.
Cultural,
sports and academic exchanges have become commonplace. Just Monday, a huge ship
docked in Havana carrying hundreds of Semester at Sea students under a U.S.
government license.
But
Obama has also argued that Washington's 51-year economic embargo on Cuba should
remain in force, and his administration has imposed tens of millions of dollars
in fines on international companies for violating the sanctions.
Cuba's
imprisonment in 2009 of U.S. government development subcontractor Alan Gross
put relations back in a deep freeze. Gross remains jailed, but this year
Washington decided it would no longer let the case stand in the way on areas of
common interest.
The
U.S. and Cuba have held multiple rounds of talks on restoring direct mail
service and immigration issues, with more scheduled for January. Diplomats on
both sides report cordial relations and call each other at home. The two
nations' coast guards reportedly work well together on things like drug
interdiction.
Perhaps
most surprising, each government has dodged developments that could easily have
poisoned the waters.
When
several Latin American presidents critical of Washington were practically
tripping over each other to offer asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, Raul
Castro was notably silent.
And
when Cuban weapons were found hidden underneath a shipment of sugar on a boat
bound for North Korea, in possible violation of U.N. sanctions, Washington made
clear it would not turn it into a bilateral issue.
Cuban
state television broadcast images of Tuesday's historic handshake, as well as a
snippet of Obama's speech. It did not, however, include his implicit criticism
of governments like Havana's. "There are too many who claim solidarity with
(Mandela's) struggle for freedom but do not tolerate dissent from their own
people," Obama said.
Obama
made waves in 2009 when he shook hands with the late Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, a strident critic of the United States, at the Summit of the Americas.
That ultimately did little to improve relations, and Venezuela and the United
States are without ambassadors in each other's capitals.
Washington
and Havana are still far apart on many issues, among them Gross, four Cuban
agents jailed in the United States, the embargo, the U.S. Navy base at
Guantanamo and Cuba's record on human rights and democracy.
But
some in Havana were optimistic the handshake may point to a future Cuba-U.S.
reboot.
"As
a Cuban I'm shocked," said Ana Lidia Aguila, a 42-year-old employee of the
City Historian's Office. "I hope that relations grow closer.
Beltran is also interested in signing with the first team
he ever played for, the Kansas City Royals. He also is looking at the
possibility of signing with the Red Sox and the Yankees but it seems right now
that his biggest priority is getting a four year deal. Beltran has enjoyed a
nice comeback in the last few years to help erase his reputation as being an
injury prone, aging star who could barely hit .270. The former Mets star is now
is known as one of the top free agents on the market this offseason.
