Caribbean & Central America - May 2016 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The bilateral Cuba-US commission set up to negotiate the legal niceties of the gradual normalisation of political and commercial relations between the two neighbours held another meeting in Havana on 16 May, where they agreed a route-map for the rest of this year. The aim is to copperfasten as much progress as possible before the US election on 8 November next, after which President Barack Obama will leave office.

Josefina Vidal, the Director General of US Affairs at the Cuban foreign ministry, had only positive things to say about President Obama’s historic trip to Havana in March, saying that President Raúl Castro was of the view that the trip, and his meeting with Obama, had delivered "positive results”, including momentum for additional cooperation in agriculture, medicine and law enforcement, Vidal stated. Her positive verdict on the Obama trip rather contrasted with the stance of senior Cuban officials in the period immediately after the trip, who sought to downplay its importance and took a chilly and rather defensive attitude to the US president’s calls for change on the island. Indeed, Vidal’s direct superior, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, described Obama's trip as “an attack” on Cuba's traditions and values, while Fidel Castro was moved to put pen to paper against Obama and later showed up in person at the Communist Party congress in April to remind the leadership to defend the Revolution and not be rushed into change that would “fail”.

Vidal, by contrast, told journalists: "We believe the visit was an additional step forward in the process of moving toward an improvement in relations, and that it can serve to add momentum to advance in this process, which is in both nations' interest”. “That's the opinion that President Castro shared during his address to the press during Obama's visit”, she emphasised. By way of the progress to date, Vidal cited new bilateral agreements on environmental cooperation, and the resumption both of direct mail service and commercial flights, albeit she noted, as Cuban officials always do, that the US trade embargo on Cuba complicated the restoration of trade and commercial relations. Vidal said that the agreed bilateral agenda for the rest of the year, which she noted was “quite ambitious”, would include visits to Cuba by senior US agriculture, health and, notably, security officials. Talks on intellectual property rights are also tentatively on the agenda.

With time of the essence, the US Deputy Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, himself Cuban born, was due to meet Cuban interior ministry officials in Havana on 17 May for talks on cooperation against drug trafficking, illegal migration and transnational crime. While Cuba and the US have in fact cooperated well for many years against drug trafficking and some transational crime, illegal migration remains a sticking point, with the Obama administration refusing to amend the controversial US ‘exception’ that gives illegal Cuban migrants arriving on US soil special leave to permanently remain.

In its comment on the latest bilateral meeting, the US State Department said: "Both governments recognised [the] significant steps made toward greater cooperation in environmental protection, civil aviation, direct mail, maritime and port security, health, agriculture, educational and cultural exchanges."

It added that the two sides also discussed future meetings on human rights and claims for compensation by American citizens and firms whose property was confiscated in Cuba's 1959 revolution. On the property claims issue – a key point for the thousands of Cuban-Americans in Miami who fled the island after the revolution – the two sides last year already set out their respective stakes with the US estimating property claims at US$10bn and Cuba demanding US$121bn in total reparations for the effect of the US embargo.

• Continued rapprochement

Vidal expressed hope that the next US government would continue with the current rapprochement, noting that US polls show a strong majority, both of US citizens and Cuban Americans, in favour of the process."So I expect their opinion will be taken into account”, she observed. Unlike some party hardliners, the presumptive Republican Party presidential candidate, Donald Trump, is not against the restoration of ties with Cuba, albeit he argues for tighter conditions. The favourite for the Democrat Party nomination, Hillary Clinton, formerly hawkish on Cuba, is now fully supportive of the Obama administration’s policy stance.