Little before his departure this afternoon, Cuomo said he will do everything within his reach to achieve lifting the economic, commercial and financial blockade that the U.S. keeps on the island for more than half a century.

He thanked all the attention he received during his stay on the part of officials and the people of the island and highlighted the importance of the meeting he held with First Cuban Vicepresident Miguel Díaz-Canel, with whom he talked about the perspectives of developing Cuban-United States links.

I feel proud of the role played by President Barack Obama in the process of approaching Cuba, in particular his most recent decision to exclude Cuba from the list of nations that according to the U.S. State Department sponsor terrorism.

Cuomo visited Tuesday the Special Development Zone of Mariel and on Monday he held a meeting with Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, in which both talked about business opportunities offered by the Caribbean nation.

The New York Governor arrived here yesterday accompanied by representatives of leading U.S. companies like the financial services company Mastercard, airline JetBlue, pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Regeneron, agribusiness enterprises, among others.

These businesspeople sustained work meetings with their Cuban counterparts in order to pave the way to a later-on cooperation, when the policy of unilateral sanctions imposed by Washington against the greater of the Antilles is dismantled.

Cuomo is the first U.S. governor to visit Cuba after thne decision announced on December 17, 2014 by presidents Raul Castro and Barack Obama of laying the foundation for the reestablishment of diplomatic relations and advance to normalization of bilateral links.

(Prensa Latina)

During the meeting, Diaz-Canel and Cuomo talked about the process to update the Cuban economic system, the relations between Cuba and the United States and the prospects to develop relations between the state of New York and Cuba, said a press release circulated here.

Director of the General Office for the United States of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Josefina Vidal and other ministerial officials participated in the meeting, said the communique.

The governor of New York arrived yesterday in Cuba, heading a group of 20 businesspeople from his state, interested in knowing the business opportunities with the Caribbean island.

Opening the New York-Cuba Business Forum at the hotel Parque Central in this capital, Cuomo asserted that full relations between Cuba and the United States were the path to discuss not only those issues on which we agree, but also our differences.

The New York governor also expects that the blockade (imposed by the United States on the island more than 50 years ago) is lifted to be able to finally make progress in the normalization of relations.

(Prensa Latina)