Thu, 11 June 11:00 2009

Cuba comes in from the cold for talks with US

Last week, Cuba’s government acceded to the United States’ request to restart talks centring on emigration and renewing a direct postal service between both countries. Negotiations over emigration began in 1994 after an avalanche of around 35,000 Cubans sailed to the Florida coast in frail home-made craft and rafts.
In 1995, yearly quotas were set for the number of ‘balseros’ to be admitted into the US but contact between both countries ground to a halt during George W Bush’s eight-year presidency.
Until Bush clamped down on these talks in 2003, setting immigrant quotas was one issue where dialogue was untainted by ideological differences.
Barack Obama, mindful of his campaign pledges, has now extended an invitation to Havana to renew the talks and Cuba has accepted. Negotiations to set up a direct postal delivery between Cuba and the United States broke off during the Bush era but if agreement can be reached, mail would have to be sent through an intermediary country for the first time in decades.
Obama’s invitation was extended just before the Organisation of American States General Assembly in Honduras last week. Cuba was ousted from the OAS in 1963 but several member countries would like to see the island readmitted although Washington continues to oppose the move. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said before the General Assembly that it was irrational to allow Cuba to belong to an organisation whose principles it did not respect. The OAS itself finds that its arm is being twisted by the US Congress which threatens to halt American funding - it accounts for 60 per cent of its budget - if the organisation were finally to give house room to Cuba.
No date has been set for renewing US-Cuban negotiations although sources close to both Havana and Washington hint that these could eventually extend to other matters of common interest.
These would include pursuit of the drugs trade and mutual assistance in the event of natural disasters like hurricanes, which regularly threaten both countries.
Washington feels that the current president Raul Castro is more open to change and less intractable than the former president, his brother, Fidel, whose ill-health forced him to hand over in February 2008 after nearly 50 years in power.
Following a succession of US presidents who have failed to divert Cuba from its chosen course, Barack Obama has chosen a different course. Sufficiently pragmatic to acknowledge that the best way to nudge Cuba towards the United States’ vision of democracy, he is offering more carrot than the stick it has received since the 1959 revolution.

Set as favorite

Email this

Comments (0) Add Comment