Hickenlooper headed to Cuba on cultural and economic trip

Fecha de publicación:

31 January 2017

Imagen principal:

Gov. John Hickenlooper will become just the 15th U.S. governor — and the first from Colorado — to visit Cuba this century when he and a delegation of area leaders travel Thursday to the island nation to discuss business and cultural issues in the post-embargo area.

Hickenlooper is heading to Cuba with a delegation from Biennial of the Americas, the Denver-based festival celebrating the art, cuisine and politics of the western hemisphere, from Thursday through Sunday.

It is the Democratic governor’s second international trip of the past month, after he traveled to Switzerland in mid-January to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The officials purpose of the visit is “to lay the groundwork for cultural and economic exchange between Colorado and Cuba,” according to a news release from Hickenlooper’s office.

And it comes as a host of local companies and business groups seek to expand their outreach to the country after the federal government removed a 57-year-old trade-and-travel embargo between the nations just last year.

Frontier Airlines, for example, now flies into Cuba from Miami International Airport. And Douglas County-based Western Union Co. (NYSE: WU) expanded its services in Cuba last year to the rest of the world.

Hickenlooper has taken a number of trips to other countries in recent years as a chance to expand trade and talk to foreign companies about expanding to or investing in Colorado. In 2016 he went to Brazil. And in 2015, he led a trade mission to China, Japan, Turkey and Israel that produced a first-of-its-kind grant program for Colorado companies that collaborate with Israeli companies or universities.

The mission to Cuba also comes as President Donald Trump has restricted travel between seven mostly Muslim countries tied by his administration to terrorism and the United States. While some Republicans complained about former President Barack Obama’s outreach efforts to Cuba, no efforts have been made back to role back the new relations between the countries.