Cuban Faces of 2015: Josefina Vidal, Diplomat / 14ymedio

Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, Cuban Foreign Ministry director general for the United States
Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, Cuban Foreign Ministry director general for the United States

14ymedio, Havana, 27 December 2015 — The face that has represented the Cuban side in the talks with the United States government on the reestablishement of relations between the two countries is that of Josefina de la Caridad Vidal Ferreiro. With a PhD in International Relations from Moscow and member of the Communist Party, the diplomat grabbed headlines during 2015 on par with her counterpart, US Assistant Secretary of State of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roberta Jacobson.

Vidal is considered one of Cuba’s leading experts on the United States. Between 1999 and 2003 the official worked as first secretary at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington DC, a post that allowed her to participate in negotiations on migration and mail service between the two countries. In 2003, her husband, the Cuban consul in the United States, was declared persona non grata by the George W. Bush administration, along with more than a dozen diplomats from the island. Vidal accompanied her husband back to Havana.

In an interview with the news agency Associated Press, Vidal said that Cuba welcomed the “whole package” offered by the administration of Barack Obama.