Inside Cuba [12.22.14]

• Fidel Castro awarded China's Confucius Peace Prize [Daily Mail]

• Raúl Castro Thanks U.S. [New York Times]

• As Havana Celebrates Historic Shift, Economic and Political Hopes Rise [New York Times]

• Cubans imagine new, more prosperous life without an old foe [Reuters] 

   

Economic Reforms in Cuba

• Cuba's state-run tourism industry is increasingly doing business with the country's new class of private entrepreneurs [USAToday]
• Spain's foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo visits Cuba, urges more rapid reforms to expand private enterprise [Fox News]

Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, right, and Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo pose for a photo prior to their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014

US - Cuba Relations 

• U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hails Obama for 'courageous' Cuba move [Reuters]

   

• Argentine Pope Francis and a trio of top Vatican officials who helped broker the historic deal between the United States and Cuba represent an unprecedented brain trust in Latin American affairs at the Holy See [Reuters]

   

• Cuba's Castro hails new era of 'living together' with U.S. [Reuters]

   

• White House does not dismiss idea of Castro visit [Reuters]

   

• U.S. support grows for Obama's push to boost ties with Cuba [Reuters]

• U.S. banks to move cautiously into Cuba, trade groups say [Reuters]

   

• U.S.-Cuba deal: What the two sides get out of it [Reuters]

"The more Cuba demonstrates a genuine willingness to permit freedom of expression, end its harsh punishment of dissent, avoid overt violations of human rights and expand economic opportunities, the easier it will be for President Obama — or any other U.S. president — to continue a policy of normalization."