U.S., Cuba Plan To Resume Talks About Restarting Direct Mail Service

Official: U.S., Cuba Plan To Resume Talks About Restarting Direct Mail

Service

By MATTHEW LEE and PAUL HAVEN 06/17/13 06:38 AM ET EDT



WASHINGTON -- The United States and Cuba will resume talks this week on

restarting direct mail service despite a deadlock between Washington and

Havana over detainees that has largely stalled most rapprochement

efforts, a U.S. official said Monday.



U.S. and Cuban diplomats and postal representatives will meet in

Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday for technical talks aimed at ending

a 50-year suspension in direct mail between the United States and the

communist island. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because

he was not authorized to speak to the matter publicly before Congress is

notified. Lawmakers were to be notified of the meetings starting Monday

morning, the official said.



The resumption in talks does not signify any change in the Obama

administration's Cuba policy, the official said, stressing that the

discussions are taking place in the context of the Cuba Democracy Act of

1992 and are consistent with the U.S. interest "in promoting the free

flow of information to, from and within Cuba."



Cuba and the United States have had no direct mail service since 1963,

though letters do go back and forth via third countries.



In and of themselves, the discussions are not particularly significant,

but the fact the two Cold War enemies are talking at all is. And, in the

past, both governments have used the bilateral meetings as a pretext to

discuss wider issues. In 2009, a senior State Department official in

Havana for mail talks ended up staying six extra days and even spoke

secretly with Cuba's deputy foreign minister – then the highest-level

meeting between the two sides in decades.



The mail talks and separate negotiations on immigration have been on

hold since then over demands by Washington that Cuba release jailed

American subcontractor Alan Gross.



Gross was arrested in December 2009 while on a USAID-funded democracy

building program and is serving a 15-year sentence after being caught

bringing communications equipment onto the island illegally.



Washington has continued to insist that no major progress in improving

ties is possible while Gross is in jail. Cuba, for its part, is asking

Washington to release four Cuban intelligence agents serving long jail

terms in the United States. A fifth completed his sentence earlier this

year and was allowed to return to Cuba after he renounced his American

citizenship.



In recent months, Cuban and U.S. officials have spoken of a better

working relationship, with diplomats on both sides routinely granted

approval to travel outside each other's capital. But whether the

behind-the-scenes thaw will result in any improvement in the countries'

formal relationship is anybody's guess.



___



Haven reported from Havana.



Source: "Official: U.S., Cuba Plan To Resume Talks About Restarting

Direct Mail Service" -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/us-cuba-mail-talks_n_3452762.html