CUBA-USA/EMBASSY-VIDAL Cuba says won't move 'one millimeter' to placate enemies in U.S.

Record ID: 144022

  • Title: CUBA-USA/EMBASSY-VIDAL Cuba says won't move 'one millimeter' to placate enemies in U.S.
  • Date: 14th August 2015
  • Summary: HAVANA, CUBA (AUGUST 14, 2015) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF CUBA'S LEAD NEGOTIATOR WITH UNITED STATES, JOSEFINA VIDAL, DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CUBA'S LEAD NEGOTIATOR WITH UNITED STATES, JOSEFINA VIDAL, SAYING: "The internal decisions are not negotiable and will never be on a conversation agenda with the U.S. for negotiations. We can hold discussions, we can deb
  • Embargoed: 29th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAD0OPVYF4BTA7QEQNXI0CKCJT5
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Cuba's lead negotiator in talks with Washington told Reuters on Friday (August 24) that the island's internal affairs would never be on the table and Havana would never move "one millimetre" to placate enemies in the United States.
    "The internal decisions are not negotiable and will never be on a conversation agenda with the U.S. for negotiations. We can hold discussions, we can debate and we can talk, and they can tell me what they don't like about the Cuban system. I can tell them what I do not like about their system and vice versa. I can say what I think is very positive of their system and they can recognize mine. But one thing is the exchange and discussion without any taboo topic and we are open to that. In fact we have already begun to do that, with the first human rights dialogue but we have also talked about human trafficking, emigration and we don't have the same opinions on those subjects, nor vision, and another thing is to negotiate," Josefina Vidal, director of U.S. affairs for the Cuban Foreign Ministry, said in an exclusive interview.
    Vidal said it was fruitless to try to win some people over since, she said, they would "never be satisfied."
    "Whatever we do or fail to do, those people (people in general) do not want the best for us. They will never be satisfied. They will ask for more and more and more, because they don't want the good of the Cuban people, they do not want an improvement of relations and ties between Cuba and the US, they want revenge," Vidal said.
    She added people in Cuba were happy with decisions taken so far and said Cuba.
    "There is overwhelming support in our country to decisions that have already been taken and results we are beginning to have. I think that Cuba and the United States, regardless of the ups and downs that they may have in the future as a result of political processes beyond my current forecast because I cannot predict and foresee them, we have no other option than this (negotiate)," Vidal said.
    Vidal said that, even if the embargo was lifted, it would take Cuba a long time to recover economically.
    "But the lifting of the embargo will not be the magic wand. After the embargo is lifted, we'll see whether we will receive the status of most favoured nation, if we are to receive tariff privileges, anyway, the normalization of economic relations is a process that will take time, even beyond the lifting of the embargo," she said after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in Havana that the U.S. Congress was unlikely to ever lift a punishing economic embargo on Cuba unless the Communist government improved its human rights record.
    Cuba fiercely rejects such conditions.
    Kerry declared a new era in relations as he celebrated restored diplomatic ties in Havana on Friday, but he also urged political change in Cuba, telling Cubans they should be free to choose their own leaders.
    The first U.S. secretary of state to visit the Caribbean island in 70 years, Kerry presided over a ceremony to raise the U.S. flag over the newly reopened American embassy.
    His comments drew a firm riposte from Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, who defended his Communist government at a joint news conference and criticized the United States' own record on rights, referring to racial strife and police brutality in America.
    The two countries were locked for decades in hostilities that outlived the Cold War. On Friday, both sides made clear the rapprochement would be slow and incremental, with less challenging issues being tackled first.
    Cuba has long defended its style of government in the face of U.S. hostility and pressure to change since the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power.
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