Diplomacy

Havana's grandest street, the Avenida de los Presidentes terminates at the Malecon, not far from my hotel.  That seaside interchange is a nest of curving streets surrounding a large circular monument of Calixto Garcia, a Cuban general who fought in all three of Cuba's wars for independence from Spain.  If you walk east along the Malecon, perhaps a mile, you come to the iconic Hotel Nacional.  Halfway between these two landmarks is another notable building, The United States Interests Section (USINT).  It's a 1950's, not particularly attractive, rectangular box about 8 stories high located between the east and westbound lanes of the Malecon.

What a strange name.  Section of what?  Therein lies the tale.  It is actually a section of the Swiss Embassy to Cuba, and it is devoted to the diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba—two countries which ostensibly have no diplomatic relations.

It seems the Swiss often take a role in relations between two countries which have reached an impasse in their relations and have withdrawn their ambassadors and closed their embassies.  So this non-embassy embassy without an ambassador run by the Swiss but housing an American chargé d'affaires is there to manage whatever comes up between the Cubans and the Yankees.  And, as you might expect, there are a lot of matters to manage.

If a Cuban wants to travel to the US, he has to obtain a visa to permit his entry into the country.  Until recently he also needed an exit permit from Cuba.  The US visa would come from USINT.  A complicating factor is that Cuban citizens are not permitted to contact USINT.  First the prospective Cuban traveler must gather together an invitation from someone in the US, airline reservations, a Cuban exit permit, and a US visa application—and then he  must wait for an invitation to an interview at USINT.

If every hurdle is successfully jumped, permission for a visit to the US will come at last.  This whole business of permitting travel would be a fertile field for the two countries to work out a simpler, faster system, but that assumes the two are willing to work out anything.  Little evidence for that willingness exists.  Conversely the USINT building sitting there in the face of a mile of Malecon drivers was used to provoke the Cuban government.  One day there appeared all along the top floor of the building a lighted sign with moving letters spelling out pro-US and anti-Cuban propaganda.

Cubans are not ones to accept an affront stoically, so they picked up the gauntlet and began developing a little park just east of USINT and also between the east and westbound lanes of the Malecon.  Their development was 50 flagpoles several stories tall.  They hoisted 50 black flags, each with a single white star. These effectively blocked the view of the lighted moving taunting machine.  They added in a few billboards calling George W. Bush an assassin, and apparently won the exchange.  At least the lighted sign came down.

My dictionary defines "diplomatic" as "skill in dealing with others; a tactful person."  These two neighbors need people with that skill.  When you the proximity of the two countries it's clear there will always be a need for diplomacy here, but in its place, we have public displays of contempt.  No one knows when we'll see signs of a thawing, but I'm sure many people on both sides of the Florida Straits will welcome it when it comes.

Les Inglis