"U.S. Turns Off News Billboard Atop Its Mission in Havana"

Why would the Obama administration turn this off? Even the NY Times comes across as critical.

The Obama administration has pulled the plug on an electronic billboard outside the American diplomatic mission in Havana that was used to tweak the Cuban government with pro-democracy messages and became a symbol of the bad blood between the two countries.

When the billboard went up in 2006, some saw it as an innovative diplomatic stick in the eye of the government of Fidel Castro. Others, though, considered the 25 electrical panels installed by the Bush administration in the fifth-floor windows of the American Interests Section to be fundamentally silly.

Mr. Castro, who ceded the presidency to his brother Raúl last year, was clearly not amused by the bright red messages, many of which criticized his government for human rights abuses.

In response, he blocked the message board with huge black flags hanging on 100-foot-high flag poles and erected billboards nearby that denounced President George W. Bush. Cuban security guards were also stationed in strategic spots to shoo away any Cubans who might gaze upward at the five-foot-high news ticker, which overlooked the Malecón, Havana’s coastal highway.

President Obama, while keeping in place the economic embargo of Cuba, has taken a series of steps to improve relations with the government. The unplugging of the billboard, which was done quietly last month, follows a loosening of travel restrictions and the beginning of migration talks with the Cuban government. . . . .