Vol. 79/No. 9      March 16, 2015

The White House is seeking to fast-track the reopening of its embassy in Havana by April, while the Cuban delegation has emphasized steps Washington needs to take to remove obstacles to meaningful diplomatic relations.

“Cuban representatives reiterated the importance of solving a series of issues, which will allow for the creation of the appropriate context to resume diplomatic relations and open embassies in both capitals,” said a Feb. 27 news release from the Cuban delegation. These include removing Cuba from Washington’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list, allowing banking services to Cuba’s Interests Section in Washington and assurances that U.S. diplomatic staff observe “norms governing the functions of diplomatic missions” in “compliance with national laws and non-interference in the internal affairs of States,” the statement said.

Cuba has been on the State Department’s State Sponsor of Terrorism list since 1982. Other countries on it are Iran, Syria and Sudan.

“For Cuba it is a matter of sheer justice,” Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, head of the North American Bureau of Cuba’s Foreign Ministry and the leader of Cuba’s delegation, told reporters at a news conference in Washington after the negotiations. “Cuba strongly believes that it should have never been included in this limited list of countries and today there is no ground to justify the inclusion of our country on that list.”

The state sponsorship of terrorism issue is not up for negotiation, but “a separate process” of “evaluation” by the U.S., Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier. “Nothing will be done with respect to the list until the evaluation is completed.”

“In our view it’s not necessary to put it all in one package,” Vidal told Cuban reporters after the talks. “If, for example, in a few weeks we receive some satisfactory news in regards to the matter of Cuba’s removal from the terrorist list, I think we can be ready to then begin talking about how to formalize the reestablishing of relations.”

Washington wants the two countries to open embassies prior to Obama’s participation in the Seventh Summit of the Americas in Panama April 10-11, removing an obstacle to the U.S. government’s efforts to regain influence on the continent. For the first time, Washington has been unable to exclude Cuban President Raúl Castro from the gathering.

Among the issues still in dispute are provisions of the U.S. embargo and sanctions imposed for being on the “terrorism” list that have prevented the Cuban Interests Section in Washington for more than a year from opening a bank account to handle financial transactions.

“We are working to try and resolve that issue,” said Roberta Jacobson, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and head of the U.S. delegation to the talks, at her Feb. 27 news conference.

A reporter from NBC News asked Vidal if “Cuba would be willing to think about returning Assata Shakur, which is one of the demands of the U.S. Congress for normalization.” Shakur, a former Black Panther, was framed up in 1973 for the killing of a New Jersey state trooper. After escaping from prison she fled to Cuba and was granted political asylum in 1984.

Vidal said that after the 1959 revolution in Cuba, Washington unilaterally abrogated the U.S.-Cuba extradition treaty, refusing to return former members of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship who committed serious crimes in Cuba.

In addition, she said, that treaty doesn’t apply to any political activity. “Cuba legitimately has given political asylum to a small group of U.S. citizens because we have reason to believe they deserve it,” she said. “And once you have granted political asylum you can’t enter into those types of discussions.”

While Washington is pressing to rapidly open an embassy in Havana, Vidal stressed the need for U.S. officials to commit to observe norms of diplomatic conduct, including noninterference in the internal political life of Cuba.

The Obama administration, on the other hand, sees the diplomatic and trade openings as opportunities to intervene in social relations in Cuba. The Feb. 24 New York Times tries to paint a picture of some of these openings in an article titled, “Inequality Becomes More Visible in Cuba as the Economy Shifts.”

“As Cuba opens the door wider to private enterprise, the gap between the haves and have-nots, and between whites and blacks, that the revolution sought to diminish is growing more evident,” the article said. “That divide is expected to increase” with the amount of money that can be sent to residents of the island increased to $8,000 a year from $2,000.

These “remittances, estimated at $1 billion to nearly $3 billion a year, are already a big source of the capital behind the new small businesses,” the Times said.
 
 
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