U.S., Cuban diplomats will only ‘set the parameters’
What does U.S. diplomat Roberta S. Jacobson expect to achieve in Havana on Thursday (Jan. 22) during her one-day meeting with her Cuban counterpart, Josefina Vidal Ferreiro?
“We are looking forward to the Cubans lifting travel restrictions, to trying to lift the caps on the number of our diplomatic personnel, to try to gain unimpeded shipments for our mission, and to the free access to our mission by Cubans,” was the answer today (Jan. 19) from a senior State Department official who asked not to be identified.
The unnamed functionary spoke to reporters in a conference call from Washington. He was asked if he could predict what might emerge from the talks.
“It is hard to know exactly what would come of this first conversation,” he answered. “We are not oblivious to the weight of history.”
The “weight of history” is the impact on both nations of a breakdown in diplomatic and trade relations that has lasted more than half a century.
The agenda is broad and not one that can be settled in one or two days. According to the unnamed functionary, it includes:
– An end to the designation of Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism.”
– The reestablishment of an embassy in the building now occupied by the U.S. Interests Section (USINT), which performs consular duties. The embassy was shut down in January 1961; the USINT was opened in 1977. (Aerial photo at top shows the building, center, in 1973.)
– An assurance from Cuba that Cuban citizens will not be barred from entering the Embassy/Consulate in the future. At present, the USINT welcomes Cubans to its “Information Resource Centers,” two libraries with 23 computers for the use of ordinary citizens. (See photo.)
– A lifting of the travel restrictions on U.S. diplomats in Havana and Cuban diplomats in Washington and New York City, who are forbidden to move more than 25 miles from their base without official permission.
– Other issues, as they come up.
The basic purpose of the Vidal-Jacobson meeting is “to get on the table all of the things that we are interested in, and all of the things the Cuban government is interested in, so that we know the parameters within which we’re working,” the nameless official said.
Depending on the results of Thursday’s meeting, there is a distinct possibility that Secretary of State John Kerry would travel to Havana next to meet with his Cuban counterpart, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.
“We would see the Secretary’s visit as something that would take place in the future,” the functionary said.
Leaders of the Cuban opposition expect to meet with Jacobson on Friday morning, at a breakfast gathering in the Interests Section building. Bertha Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, and José Daniel Ferrer, head of the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU), have told the media about it, but the USINT has not confirmed it.
Jacobson’s plane is scheduled to land in Havana on Wednesday (Jan. 21).
