POPE Benedict XVI has wrapped up a visit to Cuba with a call for respect of "basic freedoms".

After an open-air mass in Havana's Revolution Square and a meeting with revolutionary icon Fidel Castro, the 84-year-old pontiff used a final public appearance at the airport on Wednesday to convey his message.

With President Raul Castro looking on, the Pope said he hoped the "light of the Lord" would help Cubans build a "society of broad vision, renewed and reconciled."

"May no one feel excluded from taking up this exciting task because of limitations of his or her basic freedoms," Pope Benedict said.

He added that he hoped Cuba would one day be the home "for all Cubans, where justice and freedom coexist in a climate of serene fraternity" -- perhaps a reference to Cuban exiles, many of whom live in the United States.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/pope-ends-cuba-trip-with-call-for-freedom/story-e6freonf-1226313289562

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro has been awarded China's version of the Nobel Peace Prize for his "important contributions" to world peace, local reports say.

Mr Castro beat more than 20 nominees, including South Korean president Park Geun-Hye and UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, to win this year's Confucius Peace Prize, the state-run Global Times reported.

The Cuban revolutionary icon was selected by nine judges out of a group of 16 experts and scholars, the newspaper said.

The Confucius prize emerged in 2010 when it was announced by the panel two days before jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel to Beijing's anger, sparking speculation it was set up with the government's guidance.

A Cuban exchange student accepted the award on Mr Castro's behalf at a ceremony on Tuesday, a day before Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi accepted their Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.

"While in office, Castro didn't resort to violence or force to settle disputes in international relations, especially with the United States," the Global Times wrote.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-11/fidel-castro-wins-china27s-27confucius-peace-prize27/5961422

WASHINGTON — The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, President Obama announced on Wednesday.

In a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis, who hosted a final meeting at the Vatican, Mr. Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba agreed in a telephone call to put aside decades of hostility to find a new relationship between the United States and the island nation just 90 miles off the American coast.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html?_r=0

Meanwhile:

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) torched President Barack Obama's new policy aimed at normalizing U.S. diplomatic relations with Cuba on Wednesday, and addressed Pope Francis' support for the president's move.

"My understanding is that the influence that His Holiness had was on the release of Mr. [Alan] Gross, which I've not criticized. As I said, I'm happy that he's with the Cuban people [sic]. I would also ask His Holiness to take up the cause of freedom and democracy, which is critical for a free people — for a people to truly be free," Rubio, a Catholic whose parents immigrated from Cuba to flee an oppressive regime, told reporters.

"I think the people of Cuba deserve the same chances to have democracy as the people of Argentina have had, where he comes from; as the people of Italy have, where he now lives. Obviously the Vatican's its own state, but very nearby," the senator and rumored 2016 presidential hopeful continued. "My point is I hope that people with that sort of prestige on the world stage will take up the cause of freedom and democracy. The Cuban people are the only people in this hemisphere that have not been able to elect a leader in more than 55 or 60 years. That's outrageous."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/marco-rubio-pope-cuba

Of course Rubio and his republican cronies support for the Saudis and other despots  — like Pinochet and Noriega — when it's profitable is legendary...

See toon at top...

What brought about this radical change was a unique alignment of political stars: a shift in public opinion, particularly among Cuban Americans; a transition in Cuban leadership from Fidel to Raúl, followed by Cuba's slow but steady evolution toward a market socialist economy; and Latin American leaders no longer willing to accept Cuba's exclusion from regional affairs. Seizing the opportunity were a handful of dedicated US legislators, well-financed lobbyists, Alan Gross' aggressive legal team, an activist pope from Latin America, and a woman hell-bent on getting pregnant.

But one factor trumped the rest: Obama's determination. He was, one top aiderecalls, "a president who really wanted to do it."

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

Obama's push to break "the shackles of the past" began shortly after his reelection, when, according to one aide, he "told us we needed to design a play to run with Cuba." By April 2013, Obama had chosen Rhodes and Zuniga to lead the negotiations. Rhodes had joined Obama's 2008 campaign as a speechwriter and was personally close to the president. "All it takes is one Google search for these guys to know that Ben speaks to the president, and has daily access, and can be a trusted back channel," explained a former White House official. Zuniga, meanwhile, had served in the US Interests Section in Havana (the embassy stand-in) and as the State Department's acting coordinator for Cuban affairs.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/secret-negotiations-gross-hernandez-kerry-pope-obama-castro-cuba

We've been on the case... See toon at top...

UPDATE: Fidel Castro died November 25 2016 at age 90. We are showcasing this story, a behind-the-scenes account that dramatically illuminates the latest twists and turns in US-Cuba relations. 

On a rainy day last December, President Barack Obama gathered a small group of senior officials in the Oval Office and placed a telephone call to Raúl Castro. Sitting on a couch to Obama's left were National Security Council aides Benjamin Rhodes and Ricardo Zuniga, personal emissaries whose 18 months of secret negotiations were about to culminate in the first substantive conversation between the presidents of the United States and Cuba in more than half a century.

Obama later told reporters that he'd apologized to Castro for talking for such a long time. "Don't worry about it, Mr. President," Castro responded. "You're still a young man and have still the time to break Fidel's record—he once spoke seven hours straight." After Castro finished his own lengthy opening statement, Obama joked, "Obviously, it runs in the family."

Despite the levity, both leaders understood the seriousness of their 45-minute conversation. "There was," one White House official recalled, "a sense of history in that room."

read more:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/secret-negotiations-gross-he...

The simple way of life of Cubans could be soon returning to the dark old days of corruption before Castro, accompanied by the destruction of well-preserved old buildings. The example of the poor Haitians who got exploited by the Clinton Foundation should help retain the focus on sharing and equality, rather than on US greed. See toon at top.