Washington - A group of Cuban journalists made a symbolic appearance in the White House press room Thursday, posing questions and offering further evidence that the vestiges of Cold War animosity are rapidly receding into history.
The group of nine journalists from the nominally communist and notably censored island had crossed the Straits of Florida to cover talks aimed at re-establishing diplomatic ties.
While those negotiations are taking place at the State Department in Washington, the journalists and a Cuban government official were also invited to visit the nearby seat of US executive power.
Nearing the end of the daily jousting match, press secretary Josh Earnest turned to a bank of unfamiliar reporters in the sixth row.
"Welcome to the United States and to the White House," he said, inviting youthful television presenter Cristina Escobar of state-run TV Cubana to ask a question.
Like many regular White House correspondents, she used the opportunity to ask several at once: about opening embassies, diplomatic freedoms, the US desire for regime change, thawing ties and the pace of reform in Cuba.
With a recent historical meeting between presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro fresh in mind, Earnest stressed coordination, cooperation and common purpose with Havana, but there was also a targeted zinger.
"We continue to have significant concerns about the way that the Cuban government all too often fails to respect the basic universal human rights," he said.
"There are too many Cuban political activists, Cuban journalists, who see their freedom of speech, their freedom of assembly, their freedom of expression trampled by the Cuban government."
Following the briefing some of the older Cuban journalists expressed disbelief that they were even at the White House.
"I never thought I would see this in my lifetime," one of the correspondents told AFP. "There is even a correspondent from Granma here," another said, laughing.
Granma -- the mouthpiece of the central committee of the ruling Cuban Communist Party -- for years hosted Fidel Castro's screeds against the imperialist Yankee enemy.
Named after the yacht that in 1956 brought Castro and Che Guevara to Cuba to overthrow the US-backed Batista regime, Granma on Thursday made a significant, but very different voyage.
AFP
