HAVANA, (Reuters) – The United States said it pressed Cuba to improve human rights during historic, high-level talks yesterday, annoying the Cubans after both sides reported making progress toward restoring diplomatic relations.
The talks were the first since U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced on Dec. 17 they would work to restore diplomatic ties, which Washington severed in 1961 two years after Raul’s brother Fidel took power and began implementing communist rule.
“As a central element of our policy, we pressed the Cuban government for improved human rights conditions, including freedom of expression and assembly,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson, the head of the delegation, said in a written statement.
Obama needs the Republican-controlled Congress to completely normalize relations with Cuba, and Republicans such as Florida Senator Marco Rubio have opposed engagement as long as Cuba maintains a one-party state, represses dissidents and controls the media.
The U.S. statement was issued near the end of two days of talks on a host of issues including the restoration of diplomatic ties.
Cuba, always sensitive to U.S. efforts to infringe on its sovereignty or meddle in its internal affairs, took the word “pressed” as less than diplomatic. The Spanish version of the U.S. statement used language that could be interpreted as “pressured.”
“I can confirm that the word ‘pressure’ was not used. I must say it’s not a word that is used in these types of conversations,” Josefina Vidal, the head of the Cuban delegation, told reporters.
Turning the table on the Americans, Cuba earlier had expressed concern over human rights in the United States, a reference to recent police killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City.
With each side working under instructions from their respective presidents, both sides stressed that the conversations were respectful and constructive.
