State Dept.’s Jacobson does outreach in Miami

State Dept.'s Jacobson does outreach in Miami
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD MWHITEFIELD@MIAMIHERALD.COM
02/10/2015 7:00 AM 02/10/2015 6:18 PM

During a visit to Miami for a meeting with Western Hemisphere
ambassadors Tuesday, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere
Affairs Roberta Jacobson also reached out to the Cuban-American community.

Jacobson's Miami visit follows a week when she testified before both the
House and Senate on President Barack Obama's new Cuba policy and push to
renew diplomatic relations with Havana.

Asked during a hearing last Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs
Committee whether there would be a strategy to reach out to the
Cuban-American community, Jacobson responded, "Absolutely we have begun
to do that, knowing that views in the community are diverse as well."

But the main purpose of Jacobson's Miami visit was to participate in a
U.S. Southern Command conference that gathers chiefs of mission and
charge d'affaires from around the Americas and officials from SOUTHCOM
and other U.S. agencies to discuss priorities in the Western Hemisphere
for 2015.

She also met with members of the Cuban-American community to discuss the
president's Cuba policy, according to a U.S. State spokesperson who
declined to provide details of those meetings.

Jacobson, who was the United States' chief negotiator during last
month's talks in Havana to discuss steps to reopen embassies in
Washington and Havana, also recorded interviews with Spanish-language
América TeVé, MegaTV and Mira TV.

The new policy of engagement with Cuba has been controversial in the
community with some embracing it enthusiastically and others opposing it
and complaining that they weren't consulted during 18 months of secret
talks that led to the diplomatic breakthrough.

Ninoska Pérez, a talk show host on Radio Mambí, said three exile groups
had rebuffed overtures for meetings with Jacobson and she congratulated
them on Twitter.

"They said if she couldn't connect with them during 18 months of
negotiations, then why should they want to talk with her on this
damage-control trip," said Pérez. Jacobson has testified that she wasn't
aware of how far-reaching the new policy would be until six to eight
weeks before it was publicly announced on Dec. 17.

Source: State Dept.'s Jacobson does outreach in Miami | The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article9700946.html