A member of the Ladies in White opposition movement is arrested during a demonstration in Havana in December 2014.

Representatives of the United States and Cuba meet in Washington on Tuesday for talks on human rights, an issue central to normalising relations between the two governments but loaded with uncomfortable questions for both sides.

Advertising Read more

The talks devoted to the prickly human rights issue are the first of their kind amid larger bilateral efforts to end half a century of mutual animosity between the US and Cuba. The meeting is to “discuss the methodology and structure of future human rights talks”, the US State Department told reporters last week.

Officials from Washington and Havana met earlier this year to discuss the reestablishment of diplomatic missions and telecommunications links after nearly simultaneous announcements from presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro on December 17 of a surprise rapprochement between the two Cold War-era foes.

The Obama administration insists improving human rights and democracy in Cuba are key components of establishing a new rapport with the Communist-run island, and the release of 53 political prisoners in January was seen by many as proof that Cuba is serious about expanding liberties in a new era of cooperation.

In announcing the talks, Cuban foreign ministry official Luis Pedroso said last week that they reflected his government’s willingness “to take up with the United States any subject, despite our differences, on the basis of equality and reciprocity”.

Political repression on the island nevertheless continues, and critics warn that the Obama administration is too eager to make concessions with no guarantee the Castro regime will implement any meaningful change.

A case in point is the detention of artist Tania Bruguera. The Cuban-born installation and performance artist is scheduled to take part in the upcoming Do Disturb festival at the Palais de Tokyo museum in Paris, but she is now banned from travelling outside her country. On December 30 she was arrested for helping organise an unauthorised “open microphone” event in which ordinary residents of Havana were encouraged to share their thoughts freely for one minute in the capital's iconic Revolution Square.

“According to the LIBERTAD (Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity) Act, the Cuban embargo cannot be repealed until Cuba demonstrates that it will hold free and fair elections, free all political prisoners, and guarantee free speech and workers’ rights,” the conservative Washington-based Heritage Foundation said in a recent statement. “Regrettably, the [Obama] administration’s new Cuba policy is systematically chipping away at the embargo.”

Not just Cuba

While the Castro regime will face renewed pressure to free its dissidents – many of whom Cuba labels agents bent on toppling the government – many expect it will level its own criticism over human rights abuses committed by Washington.

“Cubans will not sit by and let Americans lecture them on human rights,” Dr. Stephen Wilkinson, editor of the International Journal of Cuban Studies, told FRANCE 24. “They will reply with a litany of cases of human rights abuses, starting with Guantanamo, waterboarding and other torture by the CIA, and the death penalty.”

Wilkinson, who is based in Britain, said it was likely that Cubans would also point an accusatory finger at the United States for the recent deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police officers in several US states, including an incident in Ferguson, Missouri, that led to massive protests and sometimes violent riots.

The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a left-leaning think tank, agreed that Cuban representatives would arrive with their own list of human rights grievances and warned US officials against approaching talks “from a position of moral superiority or self-righteous lecturing”.

“The Cubans will have things to say to the United States about Ferguson and police abuse, lack of access to education and healthcare, and about other issues,” WOLA programme director Geoff Thale said in a statement on Tuesday. “We should see the dialogue as an ongoing process where we explain and advocate for both US and internationally recognised values and principles.”

'Human damage' under embargo

Tuesday’s meeting in Washington could also become a forum for Cuba to attack the embargo itself as a policy depriving its people of fundamental rights.

In a speech at a summit of Latin American countries in January, President Castro said a rapprochement with the US would not make sense without entirely lifting the US embargo and some kind of compensation for the “human and economic damage” the Cuban people have suffered.

Despite such confrontational rhetoric, talks to restore diplomatic ties have been advancing at a steady clip. Both sides have publicly expressed the hope they can reopen embassies in both countries in time for the Summit of the Americas in Panama on April 10 and 11, in which Cuba is slated to participate for the first time.

Observers said that even while talks are moving forward quickly, Cuba’s internal political reforms face a long road ahead.

“No one should have illusions about the pace of Cuba’s internal reform. It is not likely to become a multi-party democracy in the near term,” WOLA’s Thale cautioned. “But, as the internal reform process advances and Cuba more fully integrates into the international economy, the country is likely to move toward greater openness, more debate, more tolerance of a variety of opinions – and ultimately, more freedom of speech and association, and less political repression.”

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning Subscribe