A new era in Cuba-US relations?

It is over 50 years since the Cuban revolution. Throughout this time the political climate between the socialist island and its powerful northern neighbour has been arctic.

With the election of Barack Obama in 2008, expectations were high that this contentious relationship could thaw out.

Obama came into office with a sparse yet revealing record on Cuba. In 2003 he categorised US diplomacy towards Cuba as a "failure," saying: "I support the eventual normalisation. During my entire lifetime, Cuba has been isolated, but has not made progress when it comes to the issues of political rights and personal freedoms. So I think that we have to shift policy."

During the Democratic candidates' debate in February 2008 Obama was asked if he would meet Raul Castro. He answered: "We now have an opportunity to potentially change the relationship between the United States and Cuba after over half a century. I would meet without preconditions, although ... there has to be preparation."

The Cuban president has indicated on a number of occasions a desire to dialogue on any subject provided it does not compromise sovereignty.

This led many Cuba-watchers to believe a new attitude was prevailing. Obama did little to discourage that speculation when in his first six months he eliminated all travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans to visit their homeland.

This was followed closely by easing of cultural and educational exchanges for US citizens - something Obama plans to expand according to reports released last month.

Talks continue for co-operation in high-tech projects such as fibreoptic cables to increase Cuba's limited access to the internet.

Last September, a group of Cuban officials and scientists visited Washington to discuss environmental protection, with their US counterparts travelling to Cuba in October to continue the talks resulting in a new collaboration in protecting shared marine environments.

There was immediate and constructive collaboration following the earthquake in Haiti and both sides were in close contact during the worst of the Gulf oil spill.

While many applaud those efforts, others claim Obama is doing nothing more than resetting policy to before the rigid coldness under George W Bush.

As Cuban expert Wayne Smith says: "We'd hoped for a new approach. We haven't got it. Obama lifted restrictions on Cuban-American travel and remittances and has allowed a few more Cuban officials and cultural figures to come to the United States, but that is about it. The same attitudes that drove the Bush administration regarding Cuba seem to be present in Obama."

His displeasure stems from the realisation that Obama's position is seen as the continuation of the hostile US foreign policy.

While the president acknowledges the strategy has been a failure, little has been done to alter the basic approach - based on demanding change in Cuba's internal conditions before any easing of the embargo or hope for normalisation.

A few months ago Obama reiterated that improved human rights, a return to "democracy" as defined by the US and increased individual freedoms must be achieved in Cuba before policy will change.

But the Cubans also point to US hypocrisy when other countries that are undemocratic and have worse civil rights restrictions are treated far less harshly - Saudi Arabia, Egypt and China among others.

Additionally, what the US calls "human rights restrictions" the Cuban government sees as justified security measures in response to 50 years of US aggression - ranging from acts of terrorism, policies with the stated goal of regime change, the embargo, travel restrictions, pressure on other countries to isolate the island and the absolute refusal to engage with Cuba to resolve differences.

Terrorism is a particularly sensitive topic with Cuba's continuing presence on the State Department's list of government sponsors of terrorism.

Cuba maintains that it has been the victim of hundreds of acts of terrorism, conducted chiefly by anti-revolutionary organisations based in Florida.

The government claims more than 3,500 lives have been lost, with thousands more injured.

Two of the most notorious terrorists - Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles - continue to live freely in Miami. The two are the recognised masterminds of the Cubana Airlines bombing in 1976 when 73 people lost their lives. Other acts of terrorism include the murder of more than a dozen teachers during the Literacy Campaign, the killing of volunteers showing commercial films to rural residents, attacks on defenceless villages, biological terrorism with the introduction of the dengue-2 virus that killed more than 100 children, the sabotage of munitions ship La Coubre, local fishermen being captured, tortured and killed and a psychological war called Operation Peter Pan which led 14,000 Cuban parents to send their children out of the country on their own.

Most recently, a series of bombs went off in hotels and tourist facilities, injuring dozens and killing an Italian tourist at a Havana hotel.

This campaign was allegedly organised by Carriles as a way to try to destroy the emerging tourist industry in Cuba.

In December, Alan P Gross, a veteran development consultant connected with USAid under the State Department, was detained by Cuban authorities.

Gross stands charged with conducting an espionage operation based on the illegal distribution of high-tech satellite phones.

Other differences that need to be resolved include immigration regulations, compensation for confiscated lands - tied into compensation for the damages done by the embargo, estimated at more than $90 billion - the release of political prisoners and the return of the Guantanamo Bay naval base.

While Obama seems reluctant to change the dynamics of the relationship, recent developments inside and outside Cuba are encouraging.

And Raul Castro has announced a series of proposed economic reforms and this summer a dozen dissidents arrested in 2003 were discharged, with promises of more releases to come in the next few months.

Spain's foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who was involved in the negotiations, commented that the release of prisoners would lead to an improvement in European Union policy towards the island "and it will have political consequences in US relations with Cuba [such as] the lifting of the embargo."

The US Congress is also taking an active role in altering Cuban-US policy. Both the House of Representatives and Senate are pushing Bills to eliminate travel restrictions for all US citizens, tied into allowing the Cuban side easier access to purchase US food products.

Obama has indicated previously that if Congress presents such a Bill, he would sign it. It would be an important step towards eventually ending the embargo and normalising relations.

While Congress is playing an important role, most experts recognise that it is Obama's leadership that will finally end the years of antagonism that has existed between the two countries.

The hope is that while the first months haven't produced as much as expected, there is still plenty of time to fundamentally revise the relationship that has been so destructive for both sides for the past 50 years.

Keith Bolender is the author of Voices From the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba, now available from Cuba Solidarity Campaign. He will be speaking at public meetings across Britain in September. For more information visit www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk or call (020) 8800-0155.