The White House is expected to remove Cuba from the United States’ state sponsor of terrorism list later this week. Despite progress during the talks between the two countries, negotiators have failed to reach an agreement on exchanging ambassadors.

The assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, Roberta Jacobson, said, “We made great progress … but we still have a few things that need to be ironed out, and we're going to do that as quickly as possible. I do remain optimistic, but I'm also a realist about 54 years that we have to overcome.”

Cuba was placed on the U.S. sponsor or terrorism list during Ronald Reagan’s administration in 1982. It’s one of four other countries on the list, along with Iran, Sudan and Syria.

Cuba and the U.S. were once close to sparking a global nuclear war. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro nationalized all businesses in his country after taking power, prompting the United States to close its embassy in Havana in 1961 and impose a crippling embargo. Later that year, the U.S. tried to overthrow Castro in a failed coup known as the Bay of Pigs incident.

Castro then turned to the Soviet Union for help, setting off decades of mistrust between Washington and Havana.

It wasn’t until 2012, when Raúl Castro took over power from his ailing brother Fidel Castro, that Cuba suggested normalizing relations with the United States. U.S. President Barack Obama responded by easing some restrictions on financial transactions with Cuban parties and kick-starting talks in January.

Not everyone is on board with the president’s strategy, but many are optimistic about better relations between the two countries.

During Al Jazeera America's Sunday night segment The Week Ahead, Lisa Fletcher spoke to Christopher Sabatini, the founder and editor-in-chief of the website Latin America Goes Global, and Paul Bonicelli, a former assistant administrator at USAID.

Bonicelli said that he does not agree with Obama’s approach on the negotiations. “The president hasn’t really required concessions from this government,” he said. “The Castro brothers are running a dictatorship, and you would think that the president would require at least some movement on politics, on economics and on our national security interests before he’s willing to give them everything. He could have gotten a lot of Republican support for that kind of negotiation, but he hasn’t asked for anything in return.”

Sabatini said, however, that the Cuban government made changes even before Obama’s announcement in December to begin negotiations. “Right now Cuba has far fewer political prisoners than it has had in decades,” he said. “Detentions and harassment continue, but there have also been economic reforms. There were over 400,000 entrepreneurs that Cuba’s allowing to help grow the economy and help bolster socialism. That’s been really important in creating some space for civic activism.”

Bonicelli disagreed, saying “entrepreneurial activity is not up in Cuba. In fact, the number is down over the years because the Cuban government has been more talk than action. I think the president missed a great opportunity to sit down with Congress and get a bipartisan deal.”

Sabatini said that there is a better chance for success with diplomatic negotiations. He said, “Cuba hasn’t been engaging in sponsoring terrorism for decades. In fact, it is sponsoring a peace negotiation between the FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia] guerrillas and the Colombian government, one of our allies.”

When asked how opening U.S. trade with Cuba would be different from what Canada and Europe have been doing with the island for decades, Sabatini said “neither of them is 90 miles off the coast of Cuba, and neither of them have close to 2 million Cubans living on their shores.” He added that once the Castro brothers are out of power, “we need to be engaged in Cuba. We cannot risk having that regime collapse without us having some sort of stake in its present if we want to have a role in the future.”

The seventh Summit of the Americas will be held at the end of this week in Panama City.  The event has been held every three years since 1994. It’s a chance for leaders from North, Central and South America to come together and discuss issues affecting the region. Topics expected to be on the agenda include trade, security and migration.
This is the first year that Cuba has been invited to attend the summit. All the Latin American and Caribbean leaders at the last summit, in Colombia in 2012, voted to invite Cuba. The U.S. and Canada have traditionally opposed its presence.
The summit comes just months after Washington and Havana decided in December to normalize relations after half a century of hostilities. Al Jazeera’s David Ariosto said that one of Havana’s major stipulations was that its removal from the United States’ list of state sponsors of terrorism. Cuba also needs U.S. cash to help boost its economy, he said.
U.S. relations with Brazil have been frosty since Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff canceled a state visit to the United States in 2013 over allegations of U.S. surveillance in Brazil. The United States is Brazil’s second-largest export market, and Brazil could use a boost from the U.S. as it faces a stalling economy.

Another topic expected to be discussed at the summit is China’s role in the region. Beijing has lent Latin American and Caribbean countries nearly $120 billion over the past decade.
During Al Jazeera America’s Sunday night segment The Week Ahead, Thomas Drayton spoke to Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas, and Jorge Castañeda, a former foreign minister of Mexico.  
“I think the summit is a really important opportunity for the United States and Cuba to show that both countries have turned over a new leaf,” said Farnsworth. “I think the question is going to be what concrete actions come out of this particular meeting.”
He added that another question is what the posture will be of the other countries at the summit. “This isn’t just the United States and Cuba meeting. It’s all the countries of the Western Hemisphere. Some of them are going to be quite focused on the fact that they don’t much like the United States, whether or not there’s a rapprochement with Cuba.” Farnsworth said relations between the U.S. and Venezuela could become a pressing issue during the summit.
“There should be a dialogue between not only Venezuela and the United States,” said Castañeda, “but also between Venezuela and the inter-American community regarding its constant, systematic and increasingly brutal violation of human rights.” He added, “Unfortunately, it looks like the Latin Americans will not want to take on Venezuela on this issue, nor will the United States, because it does not seem to want to have a public debate with Venezuela get in the way of the rapprochement with Cuba.”
Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro said he has 10 million signatures from Venezuelans urging the U.S. to remove sanctions on a number of its officials. The U.S. imposed the sanctions last month, citing human rights violations.
Farnsworth said that Mexico, Colombia and Chile don’t have much sympathy for the Venezuelan regime, though they might publicly show support and solidarity. He said their “real interest is developing an economic relationship with the United States, and so their hope would be that Venezuela does not take over the summit.”
Castañeda said, “Obama, unlike many of his predecessors, has done just about everything in terms of so-called respect for Latin American nationalism and old-fashioned anti-imperialism.”
He added that President Hugo Chávez, in an interview before his death, when asked if he thought there was any way to get along with the United States, said, “As long as the United States is an imperialist power and does not have a socialist government, there is no way.” Castañeda said, “That pretty much sums up what most of the Latin Americans … think about relations with the United States.”

Relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have soured once again. This week ties between the two countries will be discussed during a Senate hearing on Capitol Hill.
On Sunday the National Assembly gave Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro the power to legislate by decree for the rest of 2015. He requested the expanded powers to counter what he sees as threats from the U.S. government.
U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order last week saying the Latin American nation poses an “extraordinary threat to the national security” of the United States. He imposed sanctions on seven Venezuelan military and intelligence officials, accusing them of human rights violations, and extended the sanctions to members of their families. The individuals are barred from doing business with American citizens, traveling to the United States and could have their assets in the U.S. seized.
Foreign ministers of the 12-nation Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) have stood behind Caracas, calling Obama’s executive order a threat to Venezuelan sovereignty, and they’re demanding that Washington revoke the decree. Cuba’s government has added that the sanctions are “arbitrary and aggressive.”
Maduro responded to Obama’s move by telling the U.S. to reduce the size of its embassy, and also putting in place new visa requirements for Americans. He also appointed one of the blacklisted officials to be his minister of interior, shoring up support at home by saying his nation will “never kneel before this arrogant empire.”
During Al Jazeera America’s Sunday night segment The Week Ahead, Thomas Drayton spoke to Christopher Sabatini, an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and to Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas, who joined the discussion from Washington, D.C.
Sabatini said it’s unclear why Maduro would need the special powers given to him. “He already had a strong majority in the national assembly,” he said. “He’s trying to drum up expectation and fear to consolidate power.”
Farnsworth said there’s also no immediate threat to the U.S. from Venezuela. “This is standard language that’s required in order to move forward to sanction foreign government officials,” he said. “It’s allowed Maduro and his government to dramatically overreact for their own purposes.” Farnsworth said Maduro is trying to gain support because he faces parliamentary elections later this year and currently has a low approval rating.
Venezuela began a 10-day military drill on Saturday, in which nearly 100,000 armed forces participated. They used shoulder-fired missiles, fighter planes and armored trucks. Sailors performed drills in the Caribbean and soldiers defended the country’s largest oil refinery in a simulated attack.
Venezuela is one of the top five exporters of oil to the United States. Its oil revenues account for about 95 percent of the country’s export earnings. In December, Maduro said Washington was starting an oil war, accusing it of trying to flood the market with shale oil to destroy Russia’s and Venezuela’s economies.
Opposition groups to Maduro’s government continued to protest, even after their top leaders were jailed. They’re upset over a deteriorating economy that has led to massive food shortages.
Farnsworth said that “when President [Hugo] Chávez was president, because he was the founder of the revolution, he had the flexibility to make changes where they needed to be. President Maduro doesn’t have that flexibility because his mandate comes from being the successor of Chávez.”
Maduro and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden shook hands a month ago, expressing interest in better relations during a meeting in Brazil. Since then, Maduro had accused Biden of plotting to overthrow him. He has also accused the U.S. of plans to impose a blockade on his country.
The seventh Summit of the Americas will be held next month in Panama. “This is probably going to be one of the most interesting summits ever,” said Sabatini. “You’ll have Obama and Maduro meeting face to face, and you’ll have some of the courting elements, if you will, of the Cuban regime,” a reference to recent talks and warming of relations between the U.S. and Cuba.
Farnsworth said, “I think the United States was hoping that this summit would be an opportunity to talk about the change in the Cuba relationship and to restore economic growth across the region. But the overheated rhetoric coming out of Venezuela — as well as the support that the Venezuelans are getting from other countries — has changed that dynamic politically.”

Monday marks five years since the devastating earthquake in Haiti that left more than 200,000 people dead and 300,000 others injured. An additional 1.5 million people were made homeless. About 95 percent of the deaths occurred in and around the capital Port-au-Prince.
However, not much has changed for people on the ground. Financial assistance is not reaching the people who need it the most, and much of that is blamed on corruption and political turmoil. It has caused many people to take to the streets calling for government accountability. Some are even calling on President Michel Martelly to step down.
Haiti was already classified as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere before the earthquake, but an additional $7.8 billion in damages utterly devastated the nation’s economy.
During Al Jazeera America’s Sunday night segment, “The Week Ahead,” Thomas Drayton spoke to Ulysse Toussaint, a documentary filmmaker from Haiti; Marc Levy, based at Columbia University, where he is deputy director of the Center for the International Earth Science Information Network; and Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, who joined the discussion from Port-au-Prince.
Toussaint says the earthquake collapsed all government buildings, along with hospitals, schools, and homes.
“It was unprecedented. It wasn’t something people had been preparing for,” says Levy. “But after the initial shock, people started looking for the most appropriate response.”
Elizondo says that there has been progress. The number of homeless people has fallen to about 70,000 from more than a million, and most of the tent shelters are now gone. People can enroll in a program that houses people rent-free for the first year. He says, however, that many people are still suffering and that poverty is still very high, with a 40 percent unemployment rate.
Levy says he would refer to Haiti as a fragile state rather than a failed state. “It has many challenges and a history of recurring crises, but it still has a lot of potential, talent, and ambition.”
Toussaint explains that having two different types of governments — one in the capital and one in the countryside — makes it difficult for either to have a presence across the entire country. He said that Haiti, in many ways, is still a French colony, despite having won its independence two centuries ago, and that the government in Port-au-Prince is controlled by Paris. He says most people fled the capital after the earthquake to the countryside, and the government there tends to be more cooperative with the people.
Toussaint adds that elections in Haiti are financed by external forces, such as France, Canada, and the United States, and the outcome often depends on who sponsors the vote.
Levy adds the earthquake itself was a kind of stress test that everyone failed, including the donors, the government, and the civic organizations within the country. “The success comes not just through rebuilding structures, but through building trust.”
A trust that Toussaint says is lacking because the people on the ground haven’t seen the aid and financial assistance that they were told was sent to them.

The issue of illegal immigration in the United States is not new, but in recent months it has returned to the spotlight amid much criticism of how Barack Obama’s administration has handled it.

According to government figures, in the past year about 57,000 children have been detained in the United States for crossing the border illegally. The Justice Department currently has more than 375,000 migrant cases being handled by a mere 243 judges.

During Al Jazeera America’s Sunday night segment The Week Ahead, Thomas Drayton spoke to Leslie Velez, a senior protection officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR), and to Al Jazeera’s Paul Beban, who was in Honduras last week, where he spoke with people about why they’re willing to risk their lives to travel to the U.S. Both guests emphasized how dangerous the journey is for the migrants, especially for children, but said that the migrants believe it is a risk worth taking.

“These parents and children are looking for any chance to get away from where they are, for any length of time,” said Beban. “The state is unable to provide any meaningful services. It can’t protect its own people, and more often than not, the police are as corrupt as the gangs and drug cartels.”

Much of the violence in Latin America stems from the lucrative trade in illicit drugs, whose biggest consumers are people in the United States. This demand for drugs, mainly cocaine, feeds the ever-growing problem in the region.

Velez cited a UNCHR review of 404 children saying, “We saw that almost 58 percent of them presented strong indicators of need for strong international protection. They need to share their stories with someone who is trained to hear their story and have access to asylum procedures before being sent back.”

For some people, it can take three years or more to get a hearing, with the average wait being 587 days. Critics of the Obama administration say that long delays only encourage more immigrants to head to the U.S.

Beban added, “If you are a child who is taken into custody at the border and you have an undocumented parent somewhere in the country, you’re going to be processed and released into their custody for at least a year and a half.”

“For any family in Honduras, that’s a win. That’s a much safer year and a half in that child’s life than they would have spent at home.”

Obama has asked Congress for nearly $4 billion to deal with the situation. He traveled this week to meet with Texas Gov. Rick Perry to discuss the problem.  On Sunday, dozens of governors met privately with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on the sidelines of the annual National Governors Association meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. They’re looking for federal assistance to host the thousands of migrant children in their states.

Beban said that the amount that Obama requested from Congress is only 0.1 percent of the annual U.S. budget, so there should be a way to address the problem.

Last week the presidents of Mexico and Guatemala agreed to make it safer and legal for Guatemalans to pass through Mexico on their way to the United States.  The deal, however, didn’t take into account that the migrants would be entering the U.S. illegally. Drayton asked Beban and Velez what the leaders south of the border are doing to curb the problem.

Velez said that during recent talks in Nicaragua, “the region still spoke in terms of shared responsibility and solidarity, underscoring the need for action, especially when it comes to the protection of so many children.”

She put the numbers into perspective, saying, “The U.S. can meet the challenge. It’s something that can be easily controlled.” She said that with nearly 60,000 migrants entering the U.S. in one year, “when we look at the comparison, there is a flow of 10,000 people leaving Syria into Jordan and Lebanon every day.”

Meanwhile, the Vatican is sending its secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, to Mexico this week to discuss the issue with officials from several Latin American countries. The talks are meant to include problems that cause migration in the first place, protection of the migrants and protocols for those who are deported.