US, Cuba move toward embassies, disagree on human rights
HAVANA – The United States and Cuba closed two days of historic talks in Havana with some progress toward restoring diplomatic ties after a half-century of estrangement, but sharp differences over the role of human rights in their new relationship.
“As a central element of our policy, we pressed the Cuban government for improved human rights conditions, including freedom of expression,” said Roberta Jacobson, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America and most senior American official to visit the island country in more than three decades. In Spanish, however, her statement said the U.S. “pressured” Cuba on the issue.
“Cuba has never responded to pressure,” Josefina Vidal, Cuba’s top diplomat for U.S. affairs, responded.
The comments by Jacobson and Vidal reflected longstanding positions of their governments and it wasn’t immediately clear whether the issue, which has previously blocked closer U.S.-Cuban relations, would pose a threat to the new diplomatic process.
Yet it laid bare the pressures each side faces – the U.S., from Republican leaders in Congress and powerful Cuban-American groups, and Cuba, from hardliners concerned rapprochement could undermine the communist system founded by Fidel Castro.
In the first face-to-face talks since last month’s declaration of detente, the two countries laid out a detailed agenda for re-establishing full diplomatic relations. Further talks were planned.
Jacobson hailed a morning session as “positive and productive,” focusing on the mechanics of converting interest sections into embassies headed by ambassadors. But she spoke of “profound differences” separating the governments and said embassies would not mean normalized ties.
“We have to overcome more than 50 years of a relationship that was not based on confidence or trust,” Jacobson told reporters.
Along with human rights, Cuba outlined other obstacles in the relationship. Vidal demanded Cuba be taken off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. However, she praised Obama for easing the U.S. trade embargo and urging Congress to lift it entirely.
“It was a first meeting. This is a process,” Vidal said. In the next weeks, she said, the two will schedule a second round of talks, which may or may not be the time to finalize an agreement.