From the “Miracle on Ice” to the Joe Louis/Max Schmeling fights, sports have often played a pivotal symbolic role in American diplomacy abroad. Now, as relations with Cuba have started to thaw, The New York Times recently detailed the Caribbean Baseball Initiative’s plan to bring a Minor League Baseball team to Havana. The group, led by veteran baseball executive Lou Schwechheimer, has spent the last decade laying significant groundwork toward this end and hopes for success as early as 2017.
U.S. and Cuba Agree to Open Embassies in Havana and Washington, D.C.
As tensions between Cuba and the United States continue to thaw, President Obama made a historic announcement today – the U.S. and Cuba will reopen embassies in each other’s capitals. This could prove a watershed moment in the push to normalize relationships between the two countries. Estimates are that the embassies will open by month end, with Secretary of State John Kerry traveling to Cuba for the official opening. This development echoes White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest’s response to his first ever question taken from a Cuban reporter last May – that the White House hoped the two countries would reopen embassies.