Led by Roberta Jacobson, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, the delegation is set for a two-day discussion with Cuban officials. Wednesday’s talk will focus on immigration, while Thursday will concentrate on the restoration of diplomatic ties, a plan announced on December 17 by both President Obama and President Raul Castro.
The diplomats arrived in Havana earlier this week, stepping off a bus just blocks away from the National Capitol Building. The building looks strikingly similar to the U.S. Capitol, with its Doric columns and large, neoclassical dome, though it hasn’t been used as a seat of government since the Cuban Revolution in 1959.
Cubans hope to end the economic embargo which costs the country an estimated $685 million annually. They also want to be scratched off the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The Cuban government also opposes U.S. laws which provide amnesty for any Cuban expatriates who find their way to American shores. U.S. policy considers these individuals refugees, while Cuba says that such a policy encourages its citizens to make dangerous, ill-prepared trips across the waters of the Florida Current.
During his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama said, “we are ending a policy that was long past its expiration date.” The line was directed at Congressional Republicans, who will likely oppose many aspects of the president’s new policies.
While diplomatic relations can be restored by the president, embargos fall under congressional jurisdiction. If relations between the two nations are to be fully reconciled, Obama has to convince the new Republican majority to play ball.
Republicans have already criticized the president’s decision, saying the new policy would effectively abandon Cuban opposition groups supported by the US.
The approaching debate over the new U.S. relationship with its Communist neighbor may extend beyond domestic politics. On Tuesday, one day before the talks, a Russian spy ship, the Viktor Leonov CCB-175, docked along a pier in Old Havana. While U.S. officials stress that the vessel’s presence is “not unusual. It’s not alarming,” it’s hard to ignore a symbolic message — for the last fifty years the Soviet Union and then Russia was Cuba's closest ally.
One Cuban official stressed that improving U.S. ties could be a long process. 50-year-old wounds can’t be healed with a single Band-Aid.
“Cuba isn’t normalizing relations with the United States,” the Cuban foreign ministry official told reporters. “Cuba is re-establishing diplomatic relations with the United States. The normalization of relations is a much longer process and much more complicated process.”
Taking the first steps down a long road, Jacobson’s team will meet with Josefina Vidal, a diplomat with the Cuban foreign ministry.
