As US and Cuban diplomats met to begin restoring diplomatic ties after five decades, Havana’s residents followed the developments with a fervor normally reserved for a papal visit or a sports championship.
Cuban media outlets aired and rebroadcast briefings throughout the two days of negotiations, a rarity in a society where the press is state-run and the public often gets news from relatives or friends.
While US and Cuban officials said differences between their governments remain “profound,” participants from both sides smiled broadly for observers and said the talks were productive.
Clara Gonzalez Perez, a 56-year-old nurse, said she gathered around a TV with family members for two days to get every bit of information about “la apertura,” or the opening, between the nations.
“There is not a baseball game that people here would watch with as much excitement as for these talks,” Perez said.
She is so enthusiastic she said, that she began hugging Us citizens who were visiting Cuba as part of cultural tour groups in the streets, saying: “I love [US President Barack] Obama! We love America!”
US Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson, the highest-ranking diplomat to visit Havana since former US president Jimmy Carter’s time in office, cautioned that the two sides must “overcome more than 50 years of a relationship that was not based on confidence or trust.”
She said that it is not clear that Cuba is ready to move as fast as the US is in loosening economic restrictions.
“What Cuba is looking for, first and foremost, is new economic activity,” Brookings Institution senior fellow Ted Piccone said in Washington. “The US economy, the largest in the world, is right next-door and really important to their economic future, but they want to do it in a controlled way on their terms.”
Even winning US Senate confirmation for an ambassador could prove difficult for Obama.
That uncertainly did not dampen excitement among many Havana residents.
“We are very hopeful that this restart in relations will bring economic growth to our country,” said Laura Ruiz Hernandez, a 25-year-old homemaker.
The hopes must wait until diplomats iron out differences.
US officials pressed the Cuban government to respect freedom of speech, assembly and dissent. The Cubans countered by accusing the US of rights violations, citing killings of unarmed black men by police officers and the alleged mistreatment of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military base.
Some Cuban critics of their government were not satisfied either. Berta Soler, the leader of the Ladies in White human rights group, refused to attend a private meeting that Jacobson had on Friday with activists and other civic groups.
Soler said too few opponents of the new US approach were included. Soler and her supporters have been repeatedly detained for marching against the Cuban government.
The diplomats also clashed over a preferential US asylum policy that Cuba says encourages dangerous illegal migration and over Cuba’s inclusion on the US Department of State’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Carlos Hernandez Morejon, a 77-year-old retired electrician, watched the news conferences repeatedly. He said that he expects quick progress in some areas, with the easing of US export restrictions helping Cuban farmers get US agricultural equipment.
Contrasting the US relationship with Cuba to the one Washington has with China, Morejon said it is time for a change.
“We are so much closer to the United States and we’re all Americans, so Cuba-US relations are the most logical in the world,” he said.
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