![]() ![]() ![]() Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso, a Baptist pastor in Taguayabon, Cuba. The talk in Tampa was human rights-continuing a conversation that began in earnest at the event in Ybor City, where the guest of honor was the Rev. In Washington, D.C., and in Havana, the buzz following Obama’s announcement was on ending an embargo that, while ineffective in toppling the Communist regime, has savaged the Cuban economy and made life close to unbearable for many of the island nation’s 12 million citizens. While the Ybor City event didn’t cause the president to change decades of rancorous relations with the Communist nation, both actions crested on a wave of historic change regarding Cuba. But the full significance of the gathering would not be apparent until a week later, when President Barack Obama stunned the nation, announcing: “In the most significant changes in our policy in more than 50 years, we will end an outdated approach that, for decades, has failed to advance our interests, and instead we will begin to normalize relations between” the United States and Cuba. ![]() A former congressman worked the room, beaming that “freedom is in the air.” National and local reporters and camera crews jostled for position.Īs events go, the December 10, 2014, gathering in Tampa’s cigar district, Ybor City, was a smash, with plenty of thundering oratory, tearful reading of poetry and aromatic Cuban food. It was a standing-room-only and-then-some crowd at the historic Tampa cigar factory that’s been reinvented as a Scientology Church. ![]()
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