Cuban representatives made their way to Washington, D.C., on Friday for the second round of talks with their U.S. counterparts. The goal of the meeting is to pave the way for the openings of a U.S. Embassy in Havana and a Cuban Embassy in Washington, the Miami Herald reported.

The closed-door encounter kicked off at 8:45 a.m. The U.S. delegation was led by Roberta Jacobson, the assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs; the Cuban government's top representative was Josefina Vidal, the head of the head of the U.S. division of the island nation's foreign ministry.

Human rights, as well as counter-narcotics and environmental-protection efforts, were not on the list of topics this time; these issues were discussed during the first round of talks in Havana on Jan. 22.

If the talks are successful, the U.S. Interests Section, which currently represents the affairs of the United States in Havana, would be converted into a full-fledged embassy. The mission's six-story building was downgraded in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy decided to break off diplomatic ties with Cuba.

Within Cuba, the Interests Section is often viewed as a "hotbed of espionage and hatched-up plots ... (to) undermine the government," the Los Angeles Times noted. In 2008, its then-head, Michael Parmly, was publicly accused of personally shuttling money to dissidents; who leveled the charges was none other than Vidal, who today led the Cuban delegation.

The Communist regime in Havana, meanwhile, has spared few efforts to infiltrate the U.S. mission. Gary Maybarduk, who served as the Interests Section's political-economic officer from 1997 to 1999, said serving at the post was "like a B-movie" and a frequent "cat-and-mouse game."

"Your first meeting upon arriving, with (U.S. diplomatic) security, is to tell you to expect your home is bugged," he said. "And there might be (hidden) video cameras in your bedroom."

Cuba, meanwhile, maintains a similar -- if less storied -- Interests Section in Washington's Adams Morgan neighborhood. The island nation will face some practical challenges if it, too, upgrades its mission to Embassy status.

The country, for example, will need to resolve its "banking dilemma" -- which had Cuban missions operate on a cash-only basis for the past year -- Gustavo Machín, Vidal's deputy, told reporters in Havana.