The United States and Cuba have agreed to restore direct postal service 52 years after severing it at the height of the Cold War, the Cuban foreign ministry said Friday. It said the "pilot plan" would take effect "in the coming weeks" and then be rolled out permanently.
The news comes six days from the first anniversary of the historic announcement by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro that the two countries would renew diplomatic ties after more than half a century. The two countries had started work on restoring postal service in 2013, even before the rapprochement was announced. They have already re-established a direct telephone link. Previously phone calls between the two had to pass through a third country, making them expensive and poor in quality.
The Cuban state telecommunications company, Etecsa, has said the new phone connection could eventually be used for Internet communications, as well. Cuba has one of the lowest rates of Internet access in the world, with just 3.4 percent of households connected.