Cuba and the United States have begun the long and complex road
towards the normalization of relations with the creation of a joint
commission that will select the specific issues to be discussed
between both nations.

The decision to create this mechanism seems to be positive after the
conclusion of the first stage of the reestablishment of relations,
including the reopening of the respective embassies, in which both the
agreements as well as the issues separating both sides came out in
the open.

Even though Secretary of State John Kerry in his speech in Havana
openly voiced the opinion of leaving behind the strategy of applying
an illegal blockade to Cuba, he still resorted to the old habit of his
country to give lessons on democracy and human rights.

The different interpretations of history, above all that developed
after 1959, also came out in the open, and will exert a
negative weight on the links between the two nations.

Another source of friction is the attempt to condition demands on
Cuba for the end of the illegal and immoral blockade of the Island, as
suggested by right wing US legislators who reject the normalization
of diplomatic links between the two countries.

Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio, a right wing Floridian,

has defiantly proclaimed that he will oppose the designation
of a US Ambassador to Cuba.

Everything can be discussed as long as both sides maintain respect for
each other. Secretary of State Kerry said so himself when he declared that
after all, the future of Cuba depends on the Cubans themselves.

And he is right. To conduct changes in Cuba is something reserved for
the Cubans themselves, without any foreign interference, as required
by the nation’s Constitutional Charter.

The US Secretary of State received a warm welcome in Old Havana and
was also respectfully received during his tour of the city’s famed
Historic Center.

Kerry was received by people that want to see mutually respectful
and civilized relations with the United States and the recognition of
the respective options to reach agreements beneficial to both sides.

Next month, precisely, Cuba and the United States will begin
negotiations on maritime security, climate change and environmental
protection.

An agreement, already reached, calls for students at the Johns Hopkins
University to attend classes in Cuba for one semester, and another one
was signed by Cuban and Floridian aquariums on the conservation of
coral beds.

Many more agreements will follow, no doubt, but all of them within a
framework of mutual respect and benefit for both Cuba and the United States.