Josefina Vidal is a ‘global thinker’ and a top ‘decision-maker,’ says magazine
Josefina de la Caridad Vidal Ferreiro, head of the North American section at the Cuban Foreign Ministry and the chief Cuban negotiator at the ongoing U.S.-Cuba rapprochement talks, has been selected by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the four decision-makers most responsible “for bridging the Straits of Florida” this past year.
“A lingering chapter of the Cold War closed in December 2014, when the United States announced it would re-establish full relations with Cuba,” the bimonthly publication says, explaining its choice.
“Leading the reconciliation were two White House aides, Ben Rhodes and Ricardo Zúñiga, who spearheaded more than 70 hours of secret talks with Havana on previously intractable issues such as prisoner swaps and easing economic sanctions.
“In 2015, the State Department’s Roberta Jacobson and the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s Josefina Vidal seized the diplomacy baton, meeting to hash out the détente’s nuts and bolts.
“They sometimes clashed (on both countries’ harboring of fugitives, for instance) and faced complex politics, for example, Fidel Castro’s public call for the relinquishing of U.S. control of Guantánamo Bay, which the United States isn’t prepared to accept.
“Yet, they still laid the groundwork for a new era of cooperation: In July, the United States and Cuba reopened their respective embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time in a half-century.”
Every year since 2009, Foreign Policy magazine has published a list of the world’s 100 most prominent leaders in various categories, including international relations.
Vidal’s official biography can be found in the Cuban portal Ecured, while an expanded report on her background is available in the National Network on Cuba website. [Click here and here.]
Roberta Jacobson’s official biography is in the State Department’s website. Background on her has also appeared in Progreso Weekly.
For more information on Honduran-born Zúñiga and Rhodes, click here and here.
