Published Tuesday, December 4, 2001 in
The Miami Herald
U.S. and Cuban officials discuss cooperation to fight immigrant
smuggling
HAVANA -- (AP) -- U.S. and Cuban officials held regular talks Monday on
better cooperation to halt the increased smuggling of illegal immigrants which
Havana blames for a growing number of deaths at sea.
"We already have been working together on anti-smuggling efforts,''
said James Carragher, the new State Department coordinator for Cuban affairs.
"The United States Department of Justice is committed to upholding the
law against these despicable people who would carry out human smuggling, and we
will indict and seek to convict them,'' he said at the conclusion of the talks.
Neither Carragher nor Cuban officials provided details about U.S. proposals
for improved cooperation among law enforcement agencies in both countries.
Ricardo Alarcon, head of the Cuban delegation and president of Cuba's
National Assembly, told reporters Havana was aware of recent U.S. efforts to
arrest and prosecute migrant smugglers.
But, he said, "much more energy is needed in applying the law and
making it more effective.'' Migrant smugglers charge Cubans up to $8,000 each to
take them to the United States illegally.
Alarcon said he also restated Cuban demands for the United States to erase
the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act that he claimed encouraged risky and illegal
migration.
Alarcon said the law "violates the spirit'' of 1994 and 1995 Cuba-U.S.
migration accords that were a focus of the Monday talks.
The act allows any Cuban citizen permitted to stay in the United States for
a year to then apply for permanent residency.
It does not provide specifics for dealing with illegal Cuban immigrants.
But current U.S. policy allows most Cubans who reach American soil by
illegal means to avoid repatriation and to eventually apply, under the act, for
U.S. residency.
Most U.S.-bound Cubans picked up at sea by the Coast Guard are returned to
their homeland.
Havana blames U.S. policy for the deaths of hundreds of Cubans at sea, most
recently 30 who perished when their boat capsized in the Florida Straits in
mid-November.
Carragher said he rejected any discussion of the U.S. law during the talks,
which he said were held only to assess how the both countries were enforcing
migration accords.
"Cubans are looking to leave a situation in which they can not practice
freely human rights,'' Carragher said, noting what he termed "the continued
failure of the Cuban economy to give the opportunities that a free market can.''
The talks are held every six months under accords signed after a 1994
immigration crisis when 30,000 Cubans took to the sea in U.S.-bound boats and
rafts. Both countries subsequently agreed to work toward the orderly and legal
migration of Cubans who want to live in the United States.
Most exiles say confrontation with Cuba a flop
By Andres Oppenheimer. aoppenheimer@herald.com.
In sharp contrast with their stands two decades ago, most South Florida
Cuban exiles believe that the U.S. policy of confrontation with Cuba's communist
regime has been a failure, and that more travel to the island would help bring
about change there, according to a poll sponsored by a new group of
Cuban-American business leaders.
Yet a 55 percent majority of Cuban exiles still support the U.S. embargo on
Cuba, most likely because they have not yet found a viable alternative to the
current sanctions, says the poll conducted by Bendixen and Associates and
scheduled to be released later this week.
In addition, the poll found what it described as a "leadership vacuum''
in the Cuban exile community: 78 percent said they wanted a leader, but could
not identify one.
"What surprised me the most is the percentage of exiles who said that
the strategy of confrontation has failed,'' Sergio Bendixen said Monday. "In
the '80s and '90s, there was a nearly 80 percent support for confrontation.''
Asked about the seeming contradiction between the exiles' growing preference
for a negotiated solution to the Cuban crisis and their continued support for
the U.S. embargo, Bendixen said that "exiles are still not seeing an
alternative to the embargo. The poll suggests that if they were to be presented
with a reasonable alternative, they would consider it.''
The new survey of 837 Miami-Dade County residents who identified themselves
as Cubans or Cuban Americans interested in Cuban issues has a margin of error of
3 percentage points.
NEGOTIATED SOLUTION
Compared with similar polls in the past, it suggests a growing support among
Cuban exiles toward a negotiated solution in Cuba. Fifty-three percent of those
polled support the Cuban Roman Catholic Church's policy of "pardon and
reconciliation,'' while 37 percent said they disagree with it, and 10 percent
did not respond.
A 1997 survey of Dade County Cuban exiles by Florida International
University's Institute of Public Opinion Research showed that 48 percent of the
exiles favored a national dialogue to solve the Cuban crisis, while the same
poll in 1993 found that only 36 percent favored a dialogue with the Cuban
regime.
According to the conclusions of the new poll, the hard-line segment of the
Cuban exile community "is surprisingly small,'' but has a big influence
over local media.
Based on the responses, the survey concluded that only 23 percent of Miami's
Cuban exiles could be described as "hard-liners,'' while 28 percent are "pro-change''
and 49 percent are "centrists,'' or up for grabs.
The "hard-liners,'' who don't want any changes in U.S. policy toward
Cuba, are mostly exiles who arrived in the 1960s and are U.S. citizens, it says.
By comparison, most of those in the "pro-change'' faction are younger,
arrived in the '80s and '90s, and only half of them have become U.S. citizens.
"The survey tells us that the Cuban-American community has not
abandoned its fight against the Castro dictatorship, but is willing to seek new
methods and strategies that could be more effective,'' said Carlos Saladrigas, a
leading member of the Cuba Study Group, sponsors of the poll.
OTHER FINDINGS
Among the poll's other findings:
There is growing support for the work of dissidents in Cuba: 58 percent of
Cuban exiles described them as "patriots,'' while 19 percent described them
as "Fidelistas in disguise'' and 23 percent did not answer.
A 53 percent majority of Cuban exiles said they believe travel to Cuba "is
an important factor in bringing about change in the island,'' while 43 percent
said travel "has not had any real impact'' on Cuba, and 4 percent did not
answer.
Asked to identify a Cuban exile leader, 73 percent could not name one. Ten
percent named Cuban American National Foundation President Jorge Mas Santos,
another 10 percent named Republican Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, and 2
percent named radio show host Armando Perez Roura.
The Cuba Study Group, a group of a dozen influential Miamians who have been
meeting privately in recent months, describes itself as a nonprofit organization
of Cuban business leaders and philanthropists whose mission is "to study
and propose projects and ideas that promote and facilitate nonviolent change in
Cuba.''
"We're not going to be a lobbying group, and we're not trying to
compete with any other group,'' Saladrigas said. "What we want to do is to
facilitate information and facts that can assist policymakers.''
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald |