Postal talks continue, Ileana is against it

The United States and Cuba talked again on Monday in Havana about the resumption of normal postal service, a topic that’s hard to get excited about, but it’s something that counts for a lot in the barren landscape of U.S.-Cuba relations.  Even in the age of e-mail, many people on both sides would like to be able to send letters and documents and to count on normal delivery times (as opposed to three weeks to never), and the postal services might possibly undercut the prices of the parcel delivery services available today.  Reuters story here.

An obstacle, noted in previous coverage here, is reciprocity.  Specifically, whether each side will let the other’s planes carry mail back and forth, which would mean the United States allowing Cuba to initiate flights to the United States.  Heaven forfend.

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is opposed to the talks and to any agreement, “for the well-being of the Cuban people.”

Odds and ends

• Prensa Latina, curious about the implementation of lineamientos 25-29 calling for creation of cooperatives, goes to Pinar del Rio to have a sit-down with the president of the Scientific Society of Cooperativism of the National Association of Economists of Cuba. The scoop: they’re working on it, developing a manual for cooperatives and model accounting systems, rules for governance, etc. The expansion of cooperatives could have an impact, he says, in “food service, transportation, construction of housing materials, artists, artisans, fishing, marketing and sales of agriculture products,” and other areas.

• Fernando Ravsberg on the shortage of lumber in Cuba.

• Sorry, Home Depot – Brazilian retailer TendTudo will soon establish a presence in Cuba, serving the growing market for tools and construction materials. “The idea is to start small and go accompanying the changes in the Cuban market,” an executive told Reuters.

• Herald: Cuban pilots who took part in the Bay of Pigs attempted invasion and were further recruited by the CIA to fly combat missions in the Congo will be honored next month for their service.

• AP on Cuba’s plan to restructure its postal service. More from CubaStandard.

• Sun-Times: Direct Chicago-Havana flights have begun; once weekly, will be twice weekly come January.

Odds and ends

• Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida wants to block “Cuba’s plan to drill for oil in its sovereign waters off the Florida Keys,” and he introduced a bill to allow the Secretary of the Interior to deny U.S. oil leases to international companies that do business with Cuba. His press release is here.

• Freedom House’s Matt Brady has a thesis about the arrest and detention of USAID contractor Alan Gross: It’s a sign that when it comes to U.S.-Cuba relations, Havana prefers to keep things just the way they are.

• Cuba suspended mail service to the United States, Reuters reports, because tighter U.S. security measures were causing some U.S.-bound mail to be returned. U.S. officials told EFE that no special procedures were applied to Cuba, there was no order to return mail to Cuba, and any return of mail to Cuba may have had to do with a decision by third-country air carriers. Prensa Latina summarizes the Cuban postal service announcement here.

• Penultimos Dias posts a 30-page paper (pdf) in English by German scholar Bert Hoffman on communications technologies and the development of civil society in Cuba.

• Herald: President Obama’s decision to allow greater academic travel and programs with Cuba is irrelevant to Florida’s public universities, which remain barred by state law from engaging in those activities.

Everybody's talking, everybody's happy

That seems to be the feeling after the talks on re-establishing postal service that took place in Havana yesterday.

From the State Department spokesman:

Question: Can you provide us an update on the direct mail talks in Havana?

Answer: We were pleased with our initial discussions yesterday on the establishment of direct mail service between the United States and Cuba. The United States considers this first round of talks to have been positive. During the course of the one-day meeting, a variety of issues related to the transportation, quality, and security of mail service between our countries were discussed. The Cuban delegation also offered the U.S. delegation an opportunity to tour a Cuban mail processing center and post office, and the U.S. delegation has offered to reciprocate the tour with a visit to an international processing center in the United States. Both sides agreed that, after consultation in their respective capitals on the issues raised, they would meet again. Establishing direct mail service between our two countries supports President Obama’s goals, as announced April 13, of bridging the gap among divided Cuban families and promoting the free flow of information to the Cuban people. We will be reviewing the results of our discussions to determine how best to move forward on this issue.

And a statement from the Cuban delegation:

El 17 de septiembre de 2009, se iniciaron las conversaciones entre representantes de Cuba y los Estados Unidos para normalizar el servicio de correo postal entre ambos países. La delegación cubana estuvo presidida por Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, directora de América del Norte del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y la delegación de los Estados Unidos fue encabezada por Bisa Williams, subsecretaria asistente interina para Asuntos del Hemisferio Occidental del Departamento de Estado.

Durante las conversaciones, Cuba trasladó a la parte norteamericana su evaluación de la situación actual del servicio postal universal entre Cuba y los Estados Unidos y presentó propuestas de solución a las dificultades existentes en esta área. La delegación cubana también abordó los temas que deben tenerse en cuenta para el restablecimiento del correo postal directo entre los dos países, incluyendo la transportación del correo, la seguridad postal y los métodos de pago por ese servicio.

La jefa de la delegación cubana declaró:… “Estamos satisfechos con el desarrollo de esta primera reunión, que permitió examinar los temas que dificultan la normalización del intercambio postal entre Cuba y los Estados Unidos, y valorar un conjunto de propuestas específicas dirigidas a superar estos obstáculos”. Calificó de amplio y útil el intercambio sostenido entre los funcionarios de las administraciones postales de Cuba y los Estados Unidos, dirigido a identificar las áreas en que se deberá trabajar para adoptar acuerdos bilaterales en materia de servicio postal.

En las conversaciones, la delegación cubana enfatizó, en particular, la importancia de eliminar las restricciones discriminatorias derivadas de la política de bloqueo de los Estados Unidos hacia Cuba, que permitan el restablecimiento del servicio de correo postal directo entre los dos países, sobre la base de los principios y normas establecidos por la Unión Postal Universal de la cual ambos Estados son miembros.

Ambas delegaciones coincidieron en la necesidad de dar continuidad a las conversaciones en los próximos meses.

La delegación cubana estuvo integrada además por Silvia Munárriz Mon, viceministra de la Informática y las Comunicaciones; y Eliecer Blanco Prieto, presidente de la Empresa de Correos de Cuba; entre otros funcionarios.

So far, so good, I guess.

But I wonder what the Cubans mean by “the importance of eliminating discriminatory restrictions derived from the embargo policy of the United States toward Cuba…based on the principles and norms established by the Universal Postal Union, of which both States are members.” Does that mean that Cuba is assuming some kind of restriction on payments? Or on the arrival of Cuban planes carrying mail to the United States?