Talks between the U.S. and Cuba on human rights started Tuesday in Washington as part of the effort to restore diplomatic relations. And while they won’t reform Cuba overnight, rights experts say they’re at least a start - and may bring Cuba under more global scrutiny than it's used to.
The only thing the U.S. and Cuba did in this first meeting was talk about how they’ll conduct the talks. Cuba, for example, insists the U.S. has its own human rights problems to own up to, including a recent spate of police abuse cases. But the process stands to shine a stronger spotlight on communist Cuba’s lack of free speech and political rights. Even as the talks began Tuesday, international arts groups were calling on Havana to let outspoken Cuban performance artist Tania Bruguera travel off the island.
“Engaging in these talks opens [the Cubans] up to more international debate and concern about their human rights record than you’ve sometimes seen in the past," says Geoff Thale, who heads the U.S.-Cuba relations program at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a human rights group. "I do think it helps change the environment.”
Since Washington and Havana began normalizing relations last December, rights groups like WOLA have seen some relative improvements in Cuba. Thale points to a reduction so far this year in detentions of Cuban dissidents and independent journalists.
"We're not going to see an avalance of changes overnight, but I think we're seeing some movement," says Thale. "And I think most interesting [is] this [Cuban government] discussion about significantly expanding Internet access in Cuba." (U.S. officials say this week that Cuban officials have told them they want more than half the island to have Internet access by 2020; currently less than a tenth of Cubans do.)
Cuban dissidents will also be allowed to attend next week’s Summit of the Americas in Panama. This is the first time Cuba has been invited to that summit.
In related news, a poll released Tuesday by the Bendixen & Amandi International firm shows a majority of Cuban-Americans now support normalizing relations with Cuba.
