US-Cuba breakthrough took route through Canada, Vatican

WASHINGTON DC, USA (UPDATED) – The US-Cuba normalization process began in secret in spring 2013 in Canada and accelerated after the personal intervention of Pope Francis, culminating in Wednesday’s (December 17) historic announcement.

US President Barack Obama authorized his administration to launch exploratory discussions with Cuban officials last year – but wanted the talks conducted north of the US border, crucially away from the prying eyes of Washington’s press corps.

By June 2013, the first face-to-face talks on normalizing US relations with the communist-ruled island were held in Canada, followed by a “series of discussions” between that time and last month, according to a senior US administration official.

During some 18 months of back-and-forth, the two sides took advantage of “multiple” avenues of communication, the US official said, including through the US interests section in Havana, Cuba’s interests section in Washington, and their United Nations missions.

What proved to be a crucial catalyst for more substantial dealings came in early summer 2014, when the pope made what the official could only describe as a “very rare” appeal to Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro.

According to a Vatican statement, Francis wrote letters to the leaders and “invited them to resolve humanitarian questions of common interest, including the situation of certain prisoners, in order to initiate a new phase in relations between the two parties.”

By October, the countries’ representatives were ensconced in the Vatican, where the Holy See “provided its good offices to facilitate a constructive dialogue on delicate matters,” the Vatican said.

The new setting helped pave the way for “solutions acceptable to both parties,” added the Vatican, which was the only outside government to participate in the discussions.

Pope’s support critical

The success is attributable in no small measure to Argentine-born Francis, the first pope from Latin America, whose letters gave Washington “greater impetus and momentum for us to move forward, the US official said.

“The support of Pope Francis and the support of the Vatican was important to us, given the esteem with which both the American and Cuban people hold the Catholic church,” he told reporters.

“President Obama has an enormous respect for Pope Francis, and his personal engagement was important.”

The success of Vatican diplomacy was not a one-off, but the result of a long mediation of the Holy See and Cuba’s Catholic Church in the recent process of democratization on the island.

Decades earlier, in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis, John XXIII intervened to try to pull Washington, Cuba and its Soviet benefactors back from the brink of nuclear war.

In recent years, the church gradually built relationships with the Cuban regime, even while advocating for the democratic opposition.

They demanded the release of government opponents – but did so without endorsing the more extreme positions of anti-regime activists, many of whom are based in Miami, Florida.

Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998, and Benedict XVI did the same in 2012. Both chose pragmatism over an anti-regime stance by never refusing dialogue with the communist authorities.

Both popes never asked for a change of regime, but rather only demanded an evolution of it.

Francis is scheduled to visit the United States next September.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper declined to divulge details of the secret talks, but acknowledged how hosting them in his country allowed negotiators to evade the spotlight early on.

“Canada was pleased to host the senior officials from the United States and Cuba, which permitted them the discretion required to carry out these important talks,” Harper said. – Rappler.com