Rafael Román Martel

After a brief warming last year, both countries appear to be falling back into old, antagonistic ways, obscuring whatever progress that has been made and hindering further advances, the experts said this week.

“The past year has proven that when it comes to U.S.-Cuba relations, old habits die hard,” said Dan Erikson of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.

Obama, who took office in January 2009 and has said he wanted to recast U.S.-Cuban relations, lifted restrictions on travel by Cuban Americans to the communist-ruled island and initiated talks on migration issues and direct postal service.

Since then, Cuban Americans have flooded the island and the two longtime ideological foes have held their first high-level discussions in years. But recent developments have been mostly negative.

Cuba jailed U.S. contractor Alan Gross in December on suspicion of spying and continues to hold him without charges.

Cuba’s government has been condemned internationally for its treatment of opponents, including imprisoned dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died in February from a hunger strike, and the “Ladies in White,” wives and mothers of imprisoned dissidents, were shouted down by government supporters during protest marches this month.