Progress but still no deal in latest round of U.S.-Cuba talks

The fourth round of negotiations between the U.S. and Cuba ended today still with no agreement on what it will take to reopen embassies in their respective countries. The talks were conducted in a “respectful and professional climate,” said the chief Cuban negotiator Josefina Vidal, “and we’ve continued to make progress.” But that was about as forthcoming as she got.

U.S. officials also insisted that hours of talks in Washington between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson and Vidal had made progress. But the length of time it’s taking to overcome hurdles in what should have been a relatively simple matter show how tough it will be to move toward full normalization after more than a half-century of hostility between the two longtime adversaries.

One senior U.S. official attributed the latest hangups to the Cuban side, saying the Havana government “still hasn’t decided what it wants more — the economic growth that will come with opening up to the world or maintaining the kind of control it’s held for so long over every part of Cuban life.”

In the five months since President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, President Raul Castro, made their surprise announcement of an intention to restore ties, Cuba has won concessions on what it most sought — removal from the State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism, and U.S. help in finding an American bank that will provide bank services to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington.

But the U.S. has not won concessions on its insistence that it can’t operate a functioning embassy if U.S. diplomats can’t travel freely throughout the country, and receive equipment and documents from the U.S. in secure containers. It also wants to continue in some form the “pro-democracy programs” that it currently offers Cuban citizens, including journalism courses and training in information technology.

For their part, many Cubans are wary that the United States is still bent on uprooting the Castro regime and its brand of communism. President Obama’s assurances that that isn’t the case have not overcome those suspicions, based the history of earlier U.S. attempts to do just that.

Jacobson implied today, as she did on Capitol Hill earlier this week, that the U.S. might accept some limitations on the activities that Cuba still wants to restrict. They could include notification of diplomats’ travel of the sort it gives in other countries around the world, like Russia and China. But the conditions “won’t be unique” to satisfy Cuban demands, she insisted.

Her most perceptive comment, perhaps, was that she remains optimistic but “also realistic about the 54 years that have to be overcome.” She did say that the remaining issues may not require another round of formal talks. Nonetheless, this round of talks was clearly a disappointment to U.S. officials who had hoped they would close this early deal on the very long path to full normalization.