Ebola can thaw US-Cuba relations

Last Updated on Monday, 3 November 2014, 22:28 by GxMedia

Cooperation between Washington and Havana on the deadly Ebola Virus can potentially help to thaw relations between the United States and Canada.

Earlier this month, a delegation from the United States Centers for Disease Control or CDC participated in high-level talks in Havana on how best to keep the disease at bay.

Held under the auspices of the ALBA initiative, the US team welcomed the strategic discussions and said that assistance would be provided through the Pan American and World Health Organisation.

Director of the Washington DC-based Council for Hemispheric Affairs or COHA, Larry Birns tells Caribbean News Desk that should Ebola spread to the Americas, relations between the two long-time adversaries can improve. “If the Ebola situation gets worse and doesn’t get better … but it still has to go some way…. and generates sufficient political mileage then it induces US foreign policy makers to alter US policy and risk the ire of Cuban American politicians.

On the eve of the US elections in which the Republicans could take control of the Senate, the COHA Director believed that some Republicans would not mind easing the pressure on the Communist-ruled island.

The majority of United Nations members vote in favour of lifting the decades-old US embargo on Cuba.