JAMAICAN officials hail historic diplomatic breakthrough with US.... This is the best news in 50 years, says J’can who studied in Cuba. Jamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, in a statement, hailed the move by Obama and Castro for their "bold and visionary leadership"....What Do You Think?

BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large helpsh@jamaicaobserver.com  Thursday, December 18, 2014

LEADING Jamaican political and medical figures and the senior Cuban envoy in Jamaica have welcomed yesterday's top global news story of efforts to normalise relations between the United States and Cuba after a stormy relationship that lasted more than 50 years.

Prez. Obama----Raul Castro

United States President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro stunned the world with the revelation that after 18 months of "secret" talks between Washington DC, the United States' political capital, and Havana, where most of Cuba's decisions are made, both countries were moving to, among other things, re-establish diplomatic ties that weakened drastically in January 1959, and were severed eventually in January 1961.

As part of the new dispensation, both countries agreed to a prisoner swap.

Jamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, in a statement, hailed the move by Obama and Castro for their "bold and visionary leadership", adding that both were deserving of commendation, following the news released simultaneously in both capital cities.

"This represents courageous action by the Governments of the United States and Cuba that will ultimately serve the best interest of the people of both countries and establish the foundation for the next required logical step of a total and formal end of the United States' unilateral trade embargo against Cuba," Simpson Miller stated, emphasising that the act now brings US and Cuban foreign policies in line with what she described as modern international diplomatic arrangements. more