“They don’t what what’s good for the Cuban people. aggressions.
“I prefer not to be pessimistic,” she said in an hour-long interview on Friday, when Kerry was in Havana to raise the U.S. A Cuban law links negotiations on property claims to Cuba’s own claims for damages caused by the embargo and other U.S.
U.S. occupation of Guantanamo as illegal.
“No matter what we do or stop doing, these people … But Cuba’s government refuses to cash the checks, made out to a non-existent Treasurer, because it sees the U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration says Guantanamo is not up for discussion, and its goal of lifting the embargo faces strong opposition inside a Republican-controlled Congress.
Washington will also press Cuba on issues of human rights, democracy and other personal freedoms.
On the most sensitive issue of political reforms, Vidal said Cuba will not give up anything to placate hardline opponents of Obama in the U.S.
The two sides would begin talks with a huge gulf between them. flag at the recently reopened American embassy for the first time since 1961.
Kerry also said the path toward normalization will be arduous but that reopening embassies was an important step.
On one side, Cuba wants back the 45 square miles (116 square km) of land at Guantanamo Bay in eastern Cuba. are just going to ask for more and more and more,” she said. naval base at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay.
“There will continue to be issues on which we disagree or where they may not yet be ripe for transition or discussion or transformation,” Kerry told a news conference. Congress or anti-Castro exiles in Miami.
Former leader Fidel Castro used to stuff them into a drawer and Vidal says they are now stored in archives “like a historical document,” a symbol of the bitterness between the two countries for over half a century.
HAVANA Josefina Vidal receives a check from the United States for $4,085 once a year, rent money for the U.S. “Were biting off a lot right now. They want revenge.”
Vidal said damages amount to more than $300 billion as of the year 2000, an amount far beyond the value of the U.S. fugitives living on the island.
With the two countries now putting aside their Cold War-era rivalry and restoring diplomatic relations, many old bilateral conflicts are now being pulled out of storage for negotiation.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Kieran Murray)
. and Cuban airlines could win landing rights in each other’s countries, is one area where a deal could be reached soon.
TALKS IN SEPTEMBER
It also wants an end to the U.S. economic embargo, no more radio and television signals with anti-communist programming beamed into Cuba, and a halt to U.S.-financed “democracy programs” that Cuba says are aimed at toppling the government.
Both sides see a chance for quick progress on some relatively simple issues, possibly including a civil aviation deal, but others will take years and they may never reach an agreement. affairs for Cuba’s foreign ministry and its lead negotiator in bilateral talks with Washington, told Reuters in an exclusive interview. It also says it cannot hand over fugitives who have been granted asylum.
The two sides will set priorities and timetables on an array of issues with a bilateral commission that will meet for the first time in September.
Vidal said a civil aviation agreement, under which U.S. “We have a collection.”
She also said Cuba is willing to discuss areas of conflict, such as the 5,913 claims from Americans whose properties were nationalized after the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.
Vidal recognizes the difficulties ahead but says Cuba is willing to tackle all the issues, no matter how hard.
Talks on direct mail, environmental protection and battling drug trafficking will resume, Vidal said, building on deals already reached in oil spill mitigation and sea search-and-rescue cooperation.
What the United States frames as human rights, Cuba sees as internal security, and it insists it will only make political changes according to its own needs. property claims or what Washington would ever consider paying.
“I receive them personally, year after year,” Vidal, the director of U.S. This is a big agenda.”
Secretary of State John Kerry called on Friday for “genuine democracy” in Cuba and the United States wants the extradition of some U.S