generous, and talented. it pains me to see them treated so unjustly as a consequence of two governments mutually belligerent policies. to be clear some policies will not be changing. and many people fled the castro regime are no people suffered under it do not want them to change. they think this is a bad idea. they re speaking up and promising president obama will pay steep political price for making this deal. talk about that shortly. first, very latest from washington and havana. cnn the network with a full time operation. patrick is there. jim acaucosta at the white hous. why did the deal come together now? this is not a lifting of the embargo. cold war between cuba and the u.s. starting to thaw. the result of talks going on with the communist nation.
he met u.s. vice president richard nixon. but relations that started with this handshake quickly soured when in 1960, all u.s. businesses in cuba were nationalized without compensation. in response, the u.s. blocked off relations and a trade embargo. went downhill from there. i, john fitzgerald kennedy, solemnly swear. reporter: john f. kennedy. attempted to overthrow castro in the bay of pigs invasion. president kennedy moved forward with attempts to destabilize the cuban government with attempts
victims who live in the united states and they have developed and flexed their political muscle. there are three cuban american senators serving in the u.s. senate. there are also u.s. congress people in the u.s. congress on both parties and they stick together when it comes to this because it is so important to the first hand victims that they represent. dan, what do you say? you serve in the obama white house. what do you say to the charges this is essentially rewarding bad behavior, an oppressive regime? a failure in reaching goals isn t a reward to anybody. continuing the policy would have been a reward to those who it benefits. this is the u.s. being more relevant in the future of cuba and the people more relevant in
during the speech, we heard bells tolling. you really got the sense that we were experiencing something quite historic, anderson. what happens now, there will be ripple effects for months, if not years after today s events. and in a lot of ways, it will put the cuban government more in the hot seat. for 50 something years, they ve blamed every economic this island has experienced on the u.s. embargo. it s still in place but lose some of the teeth and will the cuban economy pick up? will people s lives improve? they certainly expect that it will and now it s up to the cuban government more than ever to deliver that. also part of this deal, a loosening of rules on the internet usage in cuba, tightly controlled by this very tough regime. any word, we heard president obama saying he s not clear on the status of fidel castro, his health status, any updates on his whereabouts? reporter: no, no reaction from fidel castro.
economic pressure against the regime though, that, effect, helps the cuban people and does help the dictatorship because it allows, i mean, if it improves their economy, that does benefit the regime, no? well, in a country where we impose sanctions, it s almost impossible to imagine that the dictators themselves or immediate staff or their top friends will be suffering economically. they ve got all they want. i ve been to the home of raul castro and also fidel castro in the last few years and they re not suffering at all. but 11 million people of cuba suffer. we have a lot of farmers in georgia who have been going down to cuba under tight restrictions to sell corn and chickens and other things to the cuban