“The road to normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States will be very complex, but every road begins with the first step, which is what we did yesterday.” Thus Roberta Jacobson said in the press conference held this morning at the residence of the head of the United States Interests Section in Havana.
The room was extremely small for the amount of media attending. The meeting convened national and foreign media, bloggers and independent journalists.
The assistant secretary referred to meetings that have just taken place in Havana on migration issues, restoring diplomatic relations and issues of bilateral cooperation. Jacobson said that these were the beginning of a much longer and more complex process, but made clear that the restoration of diplomatic relations was already a decision by both presidents and was not influenced by other issues that they were going to keep addressing as part of the dialog.
Jacobson said that her government wanted to end the policy that it has historically developed with Cuba, but that the end of this new policy was the same: “empower the Cuban people to make decisions about their future. Only practices, measures to implement that policy must change because we cannot continue doing the same after 50 years. Although US policy has changed and we are ready to move forward, we will see if the Cuban government is ready to move as fast as us. ”
“We have discrepancies and differences with many countries of the world, but that does not mean we cannot have diplomatic relations. With many other countries we have deep differences and have diplomatic relations, “Jacobson said.
The secretary explained that among the specific topics discussed with the Cuban side for the creation of the embassy was the free movement of US officials on the island, which seems to suggest they are willing to suppress the measure restricting the movement to which Cuban officials in the United States are equally subject. Another point would be the Cubans’ access to the embassy without the control of the Cuban government, ¨without their being written down on a list¨ she said
“There is no doubt that human rights remain at the center of our policy. I think it’s obvious that we have deep disagreements over issues such as democracy, human rights, support for civil society and independent actors; it is crucial to keep talking about it, “Jacobson said.
She reaffirmed the intention of President Obama to discuss issues such as the embargo in the US Congress and recalled that “the president has clearly said it has asked the Secretary of State to review the list of state sponsors of terrorism, which we are doing right now. We do not know exactly what the outcome will be, but is part of this process. ”
About the granting of parole to Cuban medical aid workers in other countries, the US government practice that the Cuban side announced as one of the points at issue, the government representative said it was part of the policy of her country and that was no change in plans, but did not rule out the possibility of discussing these issues where there is disagreement on.
Roberta Jacobson said it was very helpful for her also meet with different actors of Cuban civil society, “listen to their opinions, their differences and their support for the new policy directly is very interesting to know how we can support civil society; it has been invaluable for me to have that opportunity. ” she said she met with the Jewish community and having a breakfast with representatives of civil society, referring to members of different organizations opposing the Cuban government.
