Cuba and the United States

Independence and Unequal Treaty Rights

Cuban independence brought a diplomatic relationship constrained by American intervention rights. After the United States ended its military occupation in May 1902, Herbert G. Squiers presented credentials in Havana on May 27. Gonzalo de Quesada followed as Cuba’s minister in Washington on June 16. The two governments subsequently raised their missions to embassy rank in 1923, but the intervention provisions associated with the Platt Amendment remained a central restriction on Cuba’s sovereignty. [1] [2]

Cuban ambassador Manuel Márquez Sterling negotiated a new Treaty of Relations with Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Assistant Secretary Sumner Welles in Washington. Signed on May 29, 1934, it abrogated the 1903 treaty when ratifications were exchanged on June 9. The agreement removed the earlier treaty framework for intervention while preserving the arrangements governing the American naval station at Guantánamo. [5]

Severance and Protected Representation

The confrontation after the 1959 revolution reached the missions themselves in January 1961. Cuba ordered the American embassy and consulate in Havana to reduce their combined personnel to eleven within 48 hours, matching the limit it announced for its own representation in Washington. American chargé Daniel Braddock advised that such a staff could not maintain a useful operation. On January 3, the United States delivered a note terminating diplomatic and consular relations and requesting the withdrawal of Cuban personnel. Cuba acknowledged the rupture the following day. [6] [7]

The governments then used different protecting powers. Switzerland represented American interests in Cuba, while Czechoslovakia represented Cuban interests in the United States. Switzerland assumed the Cuban mandate in Washington in 1991. [8]

Revolution, Nuclear Crisis, and Migration

The revolutionary rupture drew the relationship into the Cold War. The failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and further American efforts to undermine Castro’s government helped frame Cuba’s decision to accept Soviet missiles. In October 1962, the United States imposed a naval quarantine while Kennedy and Khrushchev exchanged messages. Robert Kennedy’s private meeting with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin helped arrange a settlement involving removal of Soviet missiles, an American assurance against invasion, and the later withdrawal of American Jupiter missiles from Turkey. The most dangerous crisis over Cuba was negotiated principally between Washington and Moscow. [11]

The conflict also transformed the relationship between the two societies. Cubans left after the revolution and nationalization of private institutions; later family reunion arrangements brought another substantial movement during the 1960s and early 1970s. The Mariel boatlift of 1980 created a further migration crisis. Families, refugees, and their continuing connections across the Florida Straits became an enduring part of bilateral affairs, even when ordinary diplomatic relations were absent. [12]

Interests Sections and Restored Embassies

Negotiations over fishing and maritime boundaries in 1977 opened a route to direct representation. American and Cuban officials also discussed prisoners, exit permits, and visits by divided families. Notes exchanged on May 30 provided for interests sections, which opened on September 1 under Lyle Lane in Havana and Ramón Sánchez Parodi in Washington. Their own diplomats could again work in the two capitals, with the sections under Swiss and Czechoslovak protection respectively. Full diplomatic relations remained suspended. [3] [9]

Cuba and the United States restored diplomatic relations on July 20, 2015. The interests sections became embassies, and the protecting power mandates ended. An exchange of notes that day terminated the 1977 interests section agreement, including its 1991 amendment. [1] [8] [10]

Diplomatic Relations Amid Continuing Restrictions

The reopening of embassies in 2015 did not settle disputes over sanctions, political freedoms, or property claims. The Trump administration tightened restrictions during its first term, while the Biden administration later eased some rules affecting family travel, remittances, and private enterprise. In January 2025, Biden announced additional changes; Trump reversed them on returning to office, including the move toward removing Cuba’s terrorism designation. [13]

Related Reading

• The United States Breaks Diplomatic Relations with Cuba [7]
• Cuban and American Interests Sections Reopen [3]
• Cuba and the United States Restore Diplomatic Relations [8]