Heller in Cuba for talks on relations

WASHINGTON — Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., is spending the weekend in Cuba, part of a delegation assessing progress in normalizing relations between the island nation and the United States.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was leading a group of three senators during meetings in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, the country’s second-largest city.

The group, which also includes Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., was scheduled to meet Friday with Miguel Diaz-Canel, the first vice president and the heir apparent to Cuban leader Raul Castro.

The senators also were scheduled to meet with business representatives, religious leaders, foreign ambassadors, and local media at a press conference Saturday. The group arrived Thursday night and was expected to return to Washington on Sunday.

“The delegation’s focus is on the unfolding progress toward normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba,” according to a press notice supplied by Heller’s office.

President Obama announced his intention last December to restore full relations with Cuba. The move signals an initial easing of some travel, banking and trade restrictions, and the possible consideration in Congress of lifting a trade embargo dating to the Cold War.

U.S. and Cuban officials also are in talks to reopen their embassies in Havana and Washington, respectively.

Leahy took part in behind-the-scenes mediation that led to the December announcement, and in January he led the first official trip to Cuba by American lawmakers.

Other small groups of federal and state officials have traveled to Cuba in recent months, including Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who were there together earlier this month.

Contact Review-Journal Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@reviewjournal.com or 202-783-1760. Find him on Twitter: @STetreaultDC