The United States and Cuba, long frozen in a political stalemate lasting more than half a century, could finally be turning towards a more open and collaborative relationship with each other. This is exciting news for both citizens and businesses looking to travel, exchange culture and develop trade opportunities. On December 17, 2014 both Barack Obama and Raul Castro held simultaneous press conferences announcing their intention to begin normalizing diplomatic and trade relations. Given the deep and stormy history, reconnecting with Cuba serves as an important and symbolic step for connecting with the rest of Latin America.

While discussions likely started well before December, the administrations no doubt had this week in mind when they made their original announcement. Starting Friday, April 10th is an important meeting for the entire Western Hemisphere: the Summit of the Americas hosted in Panama City.

In preparation for this week's summit and for an upcoming business trip, the Chamber of the Americas brought in an internationally renowned expert on US-Cuba relations, Arturo Lopez-Levy. In addition to being a professor on Latin American politics and comparative politics, the Cuban-American has in fact written the book on "Raul Castro and the New Cuba". ICOSA Media and the Colorado Business Roundtable would like to thank Gil Cisneros and Laura Frigo from the Chamber of the Americas for bringing in such a high caliber expert on this timely subject.

While the luncheon was not filmed, he covers a small selection of the same perspective below in this interview following the December 17th announcements. For future events and for information regarding the upcoming trip to Cuba, please visit http://www.chamberoftheamericas.com/

You can read more about US-Cuba relations from Arturo's perspective here or by following him on twitter @turylevy