Gov. Andrew Cuomo says his trade mission to Cuba will help pressure Congress to ease or lift the decades-old embargo on the island nation.
“I think it’s a question now of building momentum,” Cuomo told reporters Monday on a chartered JetBlue fight to Cuba.
The governor said it’s important for the debate about Cuba’s status to extend beyond the “beltway,” where politics and gridlock “far too often” stymie change.
“The more the conversation happens outside of Washington, the more it happens in the business community, the more it happens with states and governors and societal pressure,” he said.
Cuomo became the first US governor to visit the Communist country since the thaw in relations announced by President Obama in December.
Before a series of meetings between business executives and Cuban officials, Cuomo praised the decision to re-establish diplomatic relations after a half-century of hostilities.
“The people in New York and the United States are very excited about the courage that your president, Raul Castro, has shown,” Cuomo said. “We believe that this is going to be a dramatic change that is going to be to the benefit of the people of Cuba and also to the people of the United States.”