- United State to open negotiation with Cuba.
- A delegation will be sent for law enforcement talk.
- Relations between the US and Cuba have been strained since the 1960s.
The United States has announced it will send a delegation to Cuba the next week to reopen negotiations between the two governments on legal matters.
The talks are expected to focus on “international law enforcement matters”, a spokesperson for the White House Vedant Patel has told reporters at the Russian embassy in Washington.
“This is an opportunity to enable the US to better protect US citizens and bring transnational criminals to justice,” Patel said.
The visit is the latest effort from the US to ease tensions between the US and Cuba, which has been plagued by a series of high-profile human trafficking cases.
Relations between the US and Cuba have been strained since the 1960s. Cuba removed its US-backed leader, Fulgencio Batista, in 1959.
During this time, in February 1962, former US President John F. Kennedy imposed a “complete economic embargo” on Cuba, which is still in effect today.
Tensions briefly thawed under Democrat Barack Obama, who became the first US president in 88 years to visit Cuba. The two countries reopened their embassies, and in 2015, Obama removed Cuba from a list of “state sponsors of terrorism”.
However, republican President Donald Trump, Obama’s successor, reinstated Cuba’s travel restrictions and added it back to the list of nations supporting terrorism.
At Friday’s press conference, reporters asked Patel how the Biden administration could “justify” negotiating law enforcement issues with a country identified as a “state sponsor of terrorism”.
“There continue to be, obviously, concerns and human rights concerns that exist,” Patel responded.
But he emphasized the administration’s stance that improving cooperation would be helpful overall.
