Cuba-U.S. negotiations stumble on resumption of ties

Cuba and the United States have made slow progress since the two countries embarked on negotiations to restore diplomatic relations six months ago, without a date for the reopening of embassies.

On Dec. 17, 2014, Cuban President Raul Castro and his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, announced simultaneously in Havana and Washington the beginning of the negotiations after over a year of secret contacts.

Castro and Obama surprised the world with the announcement, opening the door to the possibility of rebuilding relations between the two countries, which have been protagonists of a bitter political dispute almost since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1, 1959.

Nevertheless, the negotiations between Cuban and U.S. delegations are now in a holding pattern after four rounds of talks.

Diplomats from the two countries met in Washington at the end of last month, in the latest talks aimed at restoring relations and reopening embassies.

After the talks, in which both parties stressed progress without offering details, the process entered into a phase of public uncertainty because no one knows if there will be a next meeting or if the ties will resume in a short term to open respective diplomatic legations.

About three weeks ago, the U.S. Department of State announced the removal of Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, an inclusion seen by Havana as an impediment to progress in the restoration of bilateral ties.

Last week, U.S. Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican who advocates for normalizing relations, met in Havana with Cuban First Vice President Miguel Diaz Canel and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, saying the opening of a U.S. embassy in Cuba is "imminent."

However, in Washington, lawmakers opposed to Obama's Cuba policy have added clauses to budgetary laws, aiming to nullify the presidential decision for lifting restrictions on trade and tourism with Cuba.

Beyond these internal problems in the negotiations, apparently some issues remain unresolved as the movement of diplomats has still been constrained.

Formal Cuba-U.S. diplomatic relations were broken by Washington in 1961. In 1977, then Cuban President Fidel Castro and his U.S. counterpart, Jimmy Carter, agreed to open offices of Interests Sections, under the legal protection of Switzerland as a single channel for the official communication between the two countries.

Today, Cuban diplomats in the United States can neither travel beyond a radius of 40 km around the Columbus Circle in Manhattan, nor come to Washington without the permission of the U.S. Department od State.

Meanwhile in Cuba, U.S. representatives must apply for a permit and submit their programs to Cuban authorities if they travel outside of Havana.

"We have told the U.S. government that we are willing to talk about it, and in turn we have argued that this is associated with an improvement in the behavior of the U.S. diplomatic mission and its staff," said Josefina Vidal, director of U.S. affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry.

"There are activities of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, such as organizing, training, encouraging, financing, and supplying small groups of people acting against the government of Cuba," she said.

Vidal, who is also head of the island nation's negotiating team with the United States, added that such kind of actions were unacceptable.

A few weeks ago, Raul Castro also denounced U.S. diplomats' behavior while commenting on his meeting with Obama on the sidelines of a regional summit in Panama.

"I expressed to President (Barack Obama) specifically, what worries me most is U.S. diplomats to continue doing the illegal things they do now," he told reporters.

He cited the training of "independent journalists" either in the U.S. Interests Section in Havana or at the residences of U.S. diplomats in Cuba, saying those courses are seen by the Cuban government as part of U.S. efforts to subvert the government and the country's internal order.

"These things can not be done. What we simply say is that we all have to adjust to the agreements on the behavior of diplomats worldwide, adopted in the Vienna Convention of 1961," said the president. Enditem