New York Governor Considers Productive Visit to Cuba

Governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo described today as productive and mutually advantageous his two-day visit to Cuba accompanied by some 20 businesspeople.

Little before his departure this afternoon, Cuomo said he will do everything within his reach to achieve lifting the economic, commercial and financial blockade that the U.S. keeps on the island for more than half a century.

He thanked all the attention he received during his stay on the part of officials and the people of the island and highlighted the importance of the meeting he held with First Cuban Vicepresident Miguel Díaz-Canel, with whom he talked about the perspectives of developing Cuban-United States links.

I feel proud of the role played by President Barack Obama in the process of approaching Cuba, in particular his most recent decision to exclude Cuba from the list of nations that according to the U.S. State Department sponsor terrorism.

Cuomo visited Tuesday the Special Development Zone of Mariel and on Monday he held a meeting with Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, in which both talked about business opportunities offered by the Caribbean nation.

The New York Governor arrived here yesterday accompanied by representatives of leading U.S. companies like the financial services company Mastercard, airline JetBlue, pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Regeneron, agribusiness enterprises, among others.

These businesspeople sustained work meetings with their Cuban counterparts in order to pave the way to a later-on cooperation, when the policy of unilateral sanctions imposed by Washington against the greater of the Antilles is dismantled.

Cuomo is the first U.S. governor to visit Cuba after thne decision announced on December 17, 2014 by presidents Raul Castro and Barack Obama of laying the foundation for the reestablishment of diplomatic relations and advance to normalization of bilateral links.