After dipping his toe by loosening some restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba before the Trinidad Summit of the Americas, President Obama, it appears, seems ready to further test the waters. He's still not diving in and lifting the embargo, more like, the Administration is now in ankle deep planning informal meetings that may set the stage for formal talks in the near future. More from the New York Times:

Seizing the momentum from recent meetings with Latin American leaders, the Obama administration is quietly pushing forward with efforts to reopen channels of communication with Cuba, according to White House and State Department officials.

The officials said informal meetings were being planned between the State Department and Cuban diplomats in the United States to determine whether the two governments could open formal talks on a variety of issues, including migration, drug trafficking and other regional security matters.

And the administration is also looking for ways to open channels for more cultural and academic exchanges between Cuba and the United States, the officials said.

The next steps, said a senior administration official, would be meant to "test the waters," to see whether the United States and Cuba could develop a "serious, civil, open relationship."

After saying the United States was "ready to talk about a series of issues," the official added, "This thing with Cuba is going to take a lot of time, and it may not work."

Officials who discussed the plans did so on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the efforts.

The details and scope of the administration's outreach to Cuba are still being worked out, they said. But their comments indicated a departure from the White House's previous position that it would not make further moves toward engagement until the Castro government reciprocated President Obama's lifting of restrictions on Cuban-Americans who wished to travel to Cuba or send money to relatives on the island.

Mr. Obama has faced mounting pressure from Latin America and from his supporters in this country to do more to reverse the United States' 47-year-old trade embargo against the Castro dictatorship. Cuba has become the litmus test by which many Latin American nations measure the United States' commitment to improving relations with the region.

Dive on in Barack, end the embargo. The embargo is simply an outdated relic of the Cold War that did not work and will not work. The reality of the matter is that the Cuban Revolution isn't going to disappear when the Castro brothers die. We need to learn how to live with Cuba and furthermore there is much to be gained from normalizing relations.

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The Associated Press is reporting that advisers to the President-elect are saying that "one of his first duties in office will be to order the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay." While it is reassuring that the President-elect is moving forward to quickly close this blight on the American conscience, he would do well to simply return it as soon as possible to its rightful owners, the Republic of Cuba. It's simply time to unwind an empire the United States should have never been acquired in the first place. Moreover, the lease of Guantánamo Bay is likely illegal under international law or at the very least the US has breached the terms of the lease thus invalidating the lease.

In 1903, shortly after Cuba achieved independence from Spain with American intervention, Theodore Roosevelt signed the deal with the new and American approved government of Cuba to lease 45 square miles at the mouth of Guantánamo Bay for 2,000 gold coins a year -- now valued at slightly more than $4,000 annually. In 1934, the United States and Cuba renegotiated the Guantánamo Bay lease, agreeing that the land would revert to Cuban control only if abandoned or by mutual consent. The U.S. government continues to pay the lease every year, but the Cuban government refuses to cash the cheques. As recently as February of last year Cuba demanded the return of the base. The US simply ignores Cuba's demands.

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