US entrepreneurs attend first US business conference in years hosted by Cuba

Dozens of US entrepreneurs braved tough US sanctions and Cuba's worst economic crisis in decades to attend a conference in Havana on Wednesday focusing on the new private sector and aimed at boosting flagging engagement between the Cold War-era foes.

The Cuban Chamber of Commerce and Washington-based consultancy FocusCuba, which are hosting the gathering, said the three-day event was the first such forum since at least 2018 when former U.S. President Donald Trump piled new sanctions on top of the decades-old trade embargo.

Both the Cuban and the U.S. delegations criticized the sanctions—most of which are still in place—and called on Democrat U.S. President Joseph Biden to drop his Republican predecessor's policies.

Cuban Chamber of Commerce President Antonio Luis Carricarte called the gathering in the famous Hotel Nacional a "historic day," praising the persistence of representatives in attendance from both sides of the Straits of Florida.