US-Cuba Shift May Change Political Landscape, Too

Jorge Pérez, director of the Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute, where Cuban doctors train for their Ebola mission, poses for a picture in a tent set up for training purposes in Havana October 17, 2014. Enrique De La Osa /Reuters 

Shah's announcement came unexpectedly, and in the midst of news from earlier that morning suggesting the US and Cuba could soon “normalize” relations following decades of disputes. Pres. Obama is expected to formally weigh in on the matter later in the 

WASHINGTON — The startling announcement that the United States and Cuba will restore full diplomatic relations could fill in one of the most enduring fault lines in American politics and reshape the fight to win the vital battleground state of Florida

WASHINGTON — The startling announcement that the United States and Cuba will restore full diplomatic relations could fill in one of the most enduring fault lines in American politics and reshape the fight to win the vital battleground state of Florida

Thomas J. Herzfeld has been waiting over two decades for the U.S. government to normalize trade relations with Cuba, after isolating the Communist country 90 miles offshore from Florida for over a half century. A closed-end fund Herzfeld manages called