WORLD: Obama names career diplomat as US ambassador to Cuba

In this photo taken Sept. 22, 2016, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama has vetoed a bill that would have allowed the families of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia. The move sets Obama up for a possible first veto override by Congress. Both chambers passed the bill by voice vote. The House sent Obama the bill just before the 15th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File |

By Darlene Superville

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama on Wednesday (Manila time) announced career diplomat Jeffrey DeLaurentis as his choice to become the first US ambassador to Cuba in more than a half-century, a move that sets up a possible fight with congressional critics of Obama's overtures to the communist island nation.

 

DeLaurentis currently is the top diplomat at the US Embassy in Havana.

 

Senate confirmation is required but will be tough for the White House to win before Obama's term ends in January. Senators who argue that Cuba doesn't deserve diplomatic outreach from the US have vowed to block any ambassador nomination, citing lack of progress on democracy and human rights on the island. Among them are Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., both with roots in Cuba.

 

Obama said Wednesday that DeLaurentis' leadership was "vital" throughout the normalization process.

 

Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro surprised the world in December 2014 by announcing that the one-time foes had agreed, after secret negotiations, to restore diplomatic relations, including reopening embassies in each other's countries. The US and Cuba severed diplomatic ties in 1961 amid the Cold War.

 

Obama called the naming of an ambassador a "common-sense" step toward more productive relations between the US and Cuba, and said DeLaurentis is the best person for the job.

 

"Having an ambassador will make it easier to advocate for our interests, and will deepen our understanding even when we know that we will continue to have differences with the Cuban government," he said in a statement that called attention to DeLaurentis' extensive experience in Cuba and Latin America. "We only hurt ourselves by not being represented by an ambassador."

 

Cuba's top diplomat in Washington, Jose R. Cabanas, was given the rank of ambassador last year.

 

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the State Department and foreign operations, argued for DeLaurentis' confirmation.

 

"The Cuban people have their ambassador in Washington. The American people need their ambassador in Havana," Leahy said in a statement.

 

Since diplomatic relations were re-established on July 20, 2015, DeLaurentis has led a series of negotiations with Cuba on topics ranging from human rights to the billions of dollars in US claims against Cuba for properties that were confiscated during the country's revolution in 1959.

 

Even if ultimately unsuccessful, the nomination of a US ambassador could provide a boost to the Obama administration's final months of negotiations with Cuba, a country highly attuned to the degree of respect it feels it is receiving from the US.

 

Earlier this year, Obama visited Cuba with his wife and daughters. During the brief visit, the first by a sitting US president in nearly seven decades, Obama met with Castro and attended a baseball game between the Cuban national team and the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball. He also addressed the Cuban people.

 

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Associated Press writer Michael Weissenstein in Havana, Cuba, contributed to this report.