I Would Tell Obama to be Daring Regarding Cuba, Asserts U.S. Mayor

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 23 (acn) Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington DC, the U.S. capital, confessed that if she had the opportunity to speak with President Barack Obama upon his return to the United States, "she would tell him to be daring" with respect to Cuba.

In an exclusive interview with the Cuban News Agency (ACN), the 43 year-old African-American, who ends today a four-day stay on the island, added that although she believes Obama should be more daring with regard to Cuba, she considers that the head of state wouldn't come if he weren't determined to achieve new things in bilateral relations.
The member of the Democrat Party, who was swore in January, 2015, as Mayor of the District of Columbia, views with favor the increase in the number of categories to travel to Cuba, but wants "these categories to increase much more."
I believe that eliminating travel restrictions for U.S. citizens would be one of the fundamental things that would allow us to contribute to the normalization of relations, she pointed out.
We want to use our money in Cuba, to travel freely and directly to any place of the island, underlined Bowser while referring to the prohibition of the U.S. government, still in force, for U.S. citizens to come to Cuba as tourists, due to blockade laws.
She pointed out that U.S. business persons are interested in having a presence in Cuba and that this is due to a large extent to the fact that many more U.S. citizens have been able to travel to the island and know more about its reality. So exploratory missions like the one that brought her to the Caribbean nation are of great importance, assessed the mayor.
"We have learned in the first Washington-Cuba business forum that U.S. companies have to know that this is a stable system and that there's a system to guarantee and protect investment," she highlighted.
Mayor Bowser, who considers herself a daring woman in politics, acknowledged that she is in Cuba because "we're breaking some obstacles, eliminating barriers."
In this stage the most important thing is contact with Cuban reality, the people-to people contact, she underlined.
This woman, who could well walk around Havana's seafront as another Cuban due to her dark complexion, told ACN her conviction that Cubans and Americans have many more things in common than what people could imagine, among them miscegenation of people.
When asked about the beauty of Washington DC and Havana, she said, laughing, that the Cuban capital is a very pretty city with that beautiful sea her city does not have, although it does have "two great rivers, the Potomac and the Anacostia."
Muriel Bowser arrived in Havana on Saturday heading a large delegation and since then has met with governmental authorities of the capital, was received by Rodrigo Malmierca, Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, and visited educational, biotechnological and health centers.
In Cuba she learned first hand, at Havana's 26 de Julio Policlinic, about the performance of the primary health care system, for which she had words of praise.
"We are amazed at the amount of physicians you have in Cuba and at seeing how the island promotes health with much less resources than what is invested in the United States in that field," she stated.
The visit of the U.S. official seeks to find a balance between the interests of her district and Cuban interests in order to establish a mutually beneficial relationship in spheres like construction, transport, biotechnology, banking, education and health.
In her first trip to Cuba and the region, Muriel Bowser said she was enthusiastic about the process that started on December 17, 2014, and optimistic with what we have achieved with regard to this trip, because like Obama, we embrace the spirit of participation and not isolation, she pointed out.