US-Cuban Diplomats Met Twice in Past Two Weeks (2 articles)

[magbana]

Cuban Colada (Miami Herald)

"Cuban interlocutor is a seasoned diplomat

Representatives of the Cuban and U.S. governments have met twice in the past two weeks, State Department Robert Wood told reporters Monday. "This afternoon , Assistant Secretary Tom Shannon is going to meet with the head of the Cuba Interests Section for a meeting at a mutually convenient location," Wood said. "The last time they met was April 13, here at the State Department. Over the years, we have had periodic contact with representatives of the Cuban Interests Section."
Thomas Shannon Jr. is Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

His interlocutor, the chief Cuban diplomat in Washington, Foto2 is Jorge Alberto Bolaños Suárez, 72, former Deputy Foreign Minister and ex-ambassador to Poland, Czechoslovakia, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico. He assumed his current post in November 2007, replacing Dagoberto Rodríguez, who is now Deputy Foreign Minister.

Bolaños accompanied the seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus during their recent visit to Cuba and escorted them to a meeting with Raúl Castro on April 7, at which Rodríguez was also present.

The Las Tunas-born Bolaños has made diplomacy a lifelong career. In his youth, he studied political sciences and international law at the University of Havana and did postgraduate work in foreign relations at the University of London. After fighting in the guerrilla army that overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959, he joined the Foreign Affairs Ministry in 1963, where he reached the post of staff director. He has held ambassadorial posts ever since.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

April 27, 2009
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/2009/04/cuban-interlocutor-is-a-seasoned-diplomat.html


"U.S., Cuban diplomats hold meeting
www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-28 06:46:09

·U.S. Assistant Secretary of State met Cuba's representative in Washington on Monday.
·The meeting is the first after Obama called for a new beginning for U.S.-Cuba relations.
·Most Americans approve of Obama's initial forays into revising the country's Cuba policy.

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon met with Cuba's representative Jorge Bolanos in Washington on Monday afternoon, in an effort to seek the so-called new beginning for Washington-Havana relations.

U.S. State Department has confirmed the meeting, the first after President Barack Obama called for a new beginning between the United States and Cuba at the Fifth Summit of the Americas, held in mid April in Trinidad and Tobago.

"And this afternoon, Assistant Secretary Tom Shannon is going to meet with the head of the Cuba interests section for a meeting at a mutually convenient location," spokesman Robert Wood told reporters at the daily press briefing.

But the spokesman tuned down the meeting's significance, saying the Obama administration has actually had "periodic contact" with representatives of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. The previous one was held on April 13.

No details on the Shannon-Bolanos meetings have been revealed yet.

The United States and Cuba have not had formal diplomatic relations since 1961, following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, but they opened interests sections in each other's capitals in 1977 to deal with consular affairs.

At the Americas summit, President Obama told his Latin American counterparts that the United States has been prepared to engage in a dialogue with Havana that includes human rights, democratic reform and economic issues.

"The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba. I know there is a longer journey that must be traveled to overcome decades of mistrust. But there are critical steps we can take toward a new day," said the president.

Ahead of his departure for the summit, Obama announced easing restrictions for Cuban-Americans on travel and remittance back to Cuba.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll showed on Monday that most Americans approve of Obama's initial forays into revising the country's Cuba policy, and many advocate pushing further, to diplomatic relations and an end to the trade embargo and travel ban. "
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/28/content_11269634.htm

[magbana]

1. Another Article Reuters

"UPDATE 1-Senior U.S. diplomat sees Cuban official
Mon Apr 27, 2009 11:36pm BST

* Second meeting between U.S. and Cuban diplomats

* Follows Obama move to ease travel restrictions

* U.S. official says two sides still "very far apart"

(Adds Commerce Department testimony on Capitol Hill)

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - Tiptoeing toward a cautious detente with Havana, a senior U.S. diplomat on Monday held his second round of meetings this month with Cuba's representative in Washington, the State Department said.

Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon met with the head of Cuba's Interest Section in the U.S. capital, Jorge Bolanos, a follow-on from a meeting they had in Washington on April 13.

"These meetings happen periodically," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood, who cautioned reporters over reading too much into the latest encounter.

"I'm not trying to make more or less of it," added Wood when pressed whether this indicated a further warming of ties between the two countries.

Cuba and the United States do not have formal diplomatic relations but both countries have outposts, or interest sections, in their capitals.

A spokesman at Cuba's office in Washington said he had "no comment" on Monday's meeting between the two diplomats.

In an about-face from the Bush administration, U.S. President Barack Obama has said he wants to "recast" relations with the communist government in Cuba.

Obama this month lifted restrictions on Cuban Americans, allowing them to travel freely to Cuba and send money to relatives there.

But he says the U.S. trade embargo imposed on Cuba after Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution will remain in place until the one-party state shows signs of democratic reform.

The Obama administration also relaxed restrictions on U.S. telecommunications companies dealing with Cuba.

"We want to see the Cuban government reciprocate," Wood said. "We have some very serious concerns about the lack of democracy in Cuba. And we want to see steps taken to improve the situation there," he added.

A senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said while Shannon's meeting was significant, there was a long way to go.

"We are certainly nowhere near normal relations with Cuba," the official said.

Senior diplomats from the former Bush administration also met occasionally with Cuba's representative in the United States but the tone of those meetings was more negative, the senior State Department official said.

"Expect a different tone in these discussions but the two sides remain very far apart in terms of a detente," he added of Shannon's meeting on Monday.

The United States is also looking for clarity on the Cuban government's overall stand toward Washington, particularly after negative comments made by Fidel Castro, who contradicted his brother's more positive tone after Obama's talk of a rapprochement.

The 82-year-old former leader of Cuba said his brother, President Raul Castro, was misinterpreted when he said Cuba was prepared to discuss "everything" with the United States, including political prisoners and human rights issues.

On Capitol Hill, a Commerce Department official, Walter Bastian, told lawmakers the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba should stay "as a source of leverage for positive change in Cuba."

But Bastian, a deputy assistant secretary, noted U.S. commercial agricultural exports are allowed with restrictions.

"Despite the broad restrictions on trade with Cuba, U.S. producers exported more than $700 million in agricultural goods to Cuba in 2008, making the U.S the largest source of food to Cuba and making us Cuba's fifth largest trading partner," he said.

(Editing by Eric Beech and Vicki Allen) "
http://uk.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=UKN2719456620090427

[Judi Lynn]

2. There are a few interesting remarks the President has made on the subject,

hoping it means he's keeping his cards close to the vest, and is working on a new position on Cuba. As we know now, John F. Kennedy was working on normalizing relations with Cuba, holding a series of secret meetings between Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, others, and his own aides, like Richard Godwin, using the ABC reporter Lisa Howard to carry messages, etc. and this was happening at the very same time someone(S) killed him. It would have been a done deal had the scum not prevented it by slaughtering the President.

It's a different way of dealing with challenges than the path taken by _{George W. Bush,} in strutting about in his silly pilot's costume, and making odd, clumsy, oafish slogans about "smoking them out, getting them on the run," "evil doers," "bad actors," "axis of evil," etc., etc. What could be more evil than a lying, torture-ordering, bloodthirsty scumbucket, anyway?

If Barack Obama is actually proceding with secret meetings, and it seems he is, working on a new relationship with Cuba, this is going to be worth the wait.