The Slow Process Towards ‘Normalization’ with Cuba Begins

iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — President Obama’s announcement Wednesday for a new chapter in diplomatic relations with Cuba is just the beginning of a slow process towards “normalization,” according to the State Department.

Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson will be traveling with a team to Havana in January to discuss the details.

Jacobson says the process of restoration of diplomatic relations begins with an exchange of letters or notes stating the desire to establish ties. “It doesn’t require a formal legal treaty or agreement,” says Jacobson.

To do that, the United States has to end its agreement with the Swiss government, which has protected U.S. officials in Cuba for 53 years.

Among other things, the U.S. will ease restrictions on travel and banking business, although the trade embargo with Cuba will remain in effect. The president expressed hope that trade relations will also resume, but that will take an act of Congress.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis congratulated the United States and Cuba on Thursday for agreeing to establish diplomatic ties after more than half a century of frozen relations.

The historic thaw in relations between the two countries came about after a year of secret talks in Canada that directly involved the pope.

The Vatican says Pope Francis wrote letters to Cuban President Raúl Castro and President Obama to urge them to resolve humanitarian questions of common interest. Those included the situation of certain prisoners who have been released.

The Vatican said it received American and Cuban delegations to the Vatican in October, providing space for the two sides to negotiate diplomatic solutions to the decades-long standoff.

It turns out that President Obama capped off Wednesday, the day he announced the change in relations with Cuba, with a cigar.

When a guest at one of two White House Hanukkah receptions handed the cigar to Obama, he gave it a sniff.

“I had the unique distinction of gifting the president of the United States with one of Cuba’s finest cigars, a Montecristo Series at the White House…after a ceremony in which a Menorah was lit,” John Berzner told ABC News.

Berzner didn’t know that Wednesday would be a landmark day in U.S.-Cuba relations.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tells ABC News that, technically, possession of a Cuban cigar would be a violation of federal law.  But they are quick to add that such a case would never be prosecuted because it would be near impossible to prove the origin of the tobacco, when it was imported and from where.


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