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Obama and Raúl Castro phone call sets stage for historic encounter at summit
Obama and Raúl Castro phone call sets stage for historic encounter at summit
(about 1 hour later)
The presidents of the United States and Cuba have spoken by phone for only the second time in more than 50 years, setting the stage for a historic encounter between the two leaders at a regional summit starting Friday in Panama.
After the highest level meeting between the United States and Cuba in more than than 50 years, civil rights activists urged Barack Obama on Friday to match diplomatic rapprochement with democratic progress.
The extraordinary call between President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro came on Wednesday, shortly before Obama departed Washington on his trip to Latin America and the Caribbean, the White House said. Both Obama and Castro arrived in Panama City for the Summit of the Americas on Thursday evening, only minutes apart.
In the latest of a series of historic steps away from the Cold War, US secretary of state John Kerry held formal talks on Thursday evening with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez.
The two leaders have been working to restore diplomatic ties, a move that sent shockwaves through Latin America when Obama and Castro announced it in tandem in December.
The White House has also revealed that Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro talked by telephone on Wednesday, ahead of an expected handshake between the two leaders at the Summit of the Americas. The event, which opens in Panama City on Friday evening, is the first time the two heads of state have appeared together since they made a surprise joint announcement on 17 December to move towards normalised relations.
Adding to the momentum, the State Department has set the stage for the removal of Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terror by completing a review of the island’s status. If Obama makes an announcement of a delisting at the summit, it would mark the most concrete step so far towards improved ties.
While widely welcomed by regional leaders, the thaw does not go far enough, according to Cuban democracy activists who have struggled to improve human rights on the island for decades.
“I think Obama is moving too slowly,” said Rosa Maria Payá, who is campaigning for more representative government on the island. “So far the steps taken are those that the Cuban government has demanded rather than those that the Cuban people have demanded. They want the vote and a say in how their country is governed.”
Payá - the daughter of acclaimed dissident Oswaldo Payá, who died in controversial circumstances in 2012 - was due to present the views of democracy activists to Obama at a Civil Rights forum later in the day.
She will ask for support for the “Cuba Decides” campaign, which wants a plebiscite on the island to ask people if they want free elections.
Payá was hostile towards the idea of a handshake between the two leaders - who have shaken hands before at Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
Related: Obama hopes US-Cuba thaw paves way for diplomacy at Americas summit
Related: Obama hopes US-Cuba thaw paves way for diplomacy at Americas summit
In another major step on Thursday, the US and Cuba held their highest-level diplomatic meeting since cutting off relations more than half a century ago. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez met behind closed doors in Panama City for a session that the State Department described as lengthy and productive.
“Obama will be shaking hands with a dictator, a general who has never been elected by the people and who got power through despotism and nepotism,” she told the Guardian.
The flurry of diplomacy was likely to reinvigorate ongoing efforts by the US and Cuba to start their relationship anew after five decades of American presidents either isolating or working to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro or his brother, Raúl Castro. Ahead of his arrival in Panama, Obama announced he was close to a decision about removing Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, a major impediment to warmer ties as far as Havana is concerned.
Other activists said the US should not yet change Cuba’s status. “I don’t think they should remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Cuba still shelters terrorists and it still behaves like a terrorism in the way it treats us,” said Karine Douiza, referring to assaults and intimidation by Cuban pro-government supporters in Panama the previous day.
The US has long since stopped actively accusing Cuba of supporting terrorism, and Obama has hinted at his willingness to take Cuba off the list ever since he and Castro announced a thaw in relations in December. Yet Obama has stopped short of the formal decision amid indications that the White House was reluctant to grant Cuba’s request until other thorny issues – such as restrictions on US diplomats in Havana – were resolved.
US officials say a previous policy of confrontation with the Castro government has proved unsuccessful and led to the isolation of Washington in Latin America. Since the shift towards a friendlier approach, Obama has claimed US relations with the region are the best they have been for decades.
“We don’t want to be imprisoned by the past,” Obama said Thursday in Jamaica, the first stop on his trip. “When something doesn’t work for 50 years, you don’t just keep on doing it. You try something new.”
However, the summit has also highlighted the continued hostility with several left-wing countries in the region, led by Venezuela.
The last known conversation between Obama and Castro was in December, shortly before they announced the thaw in relations. The two leaders exchanged a brief handshake in 2013 during Nelson Mandela’s funeral in South Africa, but haven’t held any substantive in-person meetings.
The Alba grouping of “Bolivarian Socialist” nations had tabled a motion condemning a recent executive order by Obama to sanction seven Venezuelan officials for alleged human rights abuses during last year’s deadly street protests.
Such an encounter was likely to take place either Friday or Saturday during the summit in Panama.
Foreign ministers were unable to agree yesterday on a resolution on this and other issues, ensuring that Panama will be the third consecutive Summit of the Americas to end without a declaration agreed by all participants.
Americans and Cubans alike can recall just how deep the animosity between their countries ran during the cold war, when even a casual, friendly exchange between their leaders would have been unthinkable. So while Obama and Castro have no formal meetings scheduled together, even a brief handshake or hallway greeting will be scrutinized for signs of whether the two nations are really poised to put their hostile pasts behind them.
Even their arrival Thursday evening seemed steeped in symbolism: Obama, after arriving in Panama City, was whisked via helicopter to his waiting motorcade at an airport formerly known as Howard Air Force Base, from which the US launched its 1989 invasion of Panama.
Castro’s plane landed on the tarmac minutes later, missing Obama only briefly – two world leaders passing warily in the night.
While Obama was in Panama on Friday, Copa Airlines and Boeing announced plans for the Panamanian airline to purchase 61 of the US airplane giant’s 737 aircraft in what the companies called the largest commercial deal between a US and Panamanian company in history. Obama and Panamanian president Juan Carlos Varela were to attend the signing ceremony for the deal, the White House said.
Obama was also to meet with other Central American leaders before speaking at a forum of CEOs from the region. Later, Obama planned to join Castro and other leaders for dinner at Panamá Viejo, home to archaeological ruins dating to the 1500s. A visit to the Panama Canal was also possible.
Yet the real focus of the summit – for Obama and most others – was the highly anticipated interaction between the US and Cuban leaders.
Four months ago, Obama and Castro announced their intention to restore diplomatic relations, beginning a painstaking process that has brought to the surface difficult issues that have long fed in to the US-Cuban estrangement. Hopes of reopening embassies in Havana and Washington before the summit failed to materialize. The US is still pushing Cuba to allow more freedom of movement for its diplomats, while Cuba wants relief from a sanctions regime that only Congress can fully lift.
In a nod to lingering US concerns about human rights and political freedoms, Obama was making a point to attend a forum bringing together both dissidents and members of the Cuban political establishment.
