The Miami
Herald, February 19, 2002.
Senior Cuban official says great possibilities as well as risks for
Cuba-U.S. relations
HAVANA - (AP) -- Cuba-U.S. relations have reached a crucial point, with both
great possibilities for improvement as well as risks, a senior government
official told visiting Americans on Monday.
''I would say we were in a defining moment, with risks and challenges on one
side ... and at the same time showing great possibilities, possibilities for
important steps,'' Ricardo Alarcon, president of the National Assembly, told
about 100 Americans here for a conference on Cuba-U.S. sister cities.
''I do not remember any other period in history that we have received so
many Americans,'' Alarcon said, referring to the several thousand American
citizens who have visited Cuba with U.S. government approval during the first
weeks of this year.
The flood of American lawmakers, business people and others now visiting
Cuba has coincided with the first direct sales of U.S. food to Cuba in nearly
four decades.
Although the food sales and the visits are unrelated, they have given hope
to Cuban officials and Americans who oppose long-standing restrictions on U.S.
travel to and trade with Cuba.
Nevertheless, the administration of President Bush has insisted that there
will be no changes in American policy toward the island until Cuba embraces
democracy and human rights.
The U.S. government has maintained a trade embargo against the island and
there have been no diplomatic relations between the two countries for four
decades. American regulations effectively bar most U.S. citizens from traveling
to the island without special approval.
Cuba withholding facts on 4 suspects, Chile says
SANTIAGO, Chile - (AP) -- President Ricardo Lagos complained Monday that
Cuba has not been forthcoming with information on four wanted Chilean terrorism
suspects believed to have escaped to the communist island.
Chile, however, will not retaliate by voting for a resolution to condemn
Cuba's human rights record when the Human Rights Commission of the United
Nations meets in April, Lagos said.
''Those are completely separate things,'' the president said. ''We will
decide on the vote when a resolution actually comes'' before the commission
during its annual meeting in Switzerland.
The Chilean government has been trying to get a clear response from Cuba
about reports that four Marxist guerrillas charged with several crimes,
including the assassination of a prominent right-wing senator, were welcomed in
Cuba after they staged a daring helicopter escape from a top security prison
here in 1996.
One of them, Mauricio Hernández, was arrested in Brazil earlier this
month as leader of a gang charged with kidnapping an advertising executive for
almost two months. Authorities believe at least one of the other fugitives was
also involved.
The government here says Cuba has never answered clearly whether the
fugitives indeed received help there.
One answer, the Foreign Ministry said, indicated that none of them had been
in Cuba -- at least not under their real names. But police here traced phone
calls from Havana by one of the fugitives to relatives in Chile.
Chile joined the condemnation of Cuba by the Human Rights Commission in 1999
and 2000. It didn't have a seat in the group last year but regained it this
year. Lagos has suggested that Chile may not vote against Cuba this time.
''We are not prepared to join a mere annual ritual of condemnation'' of
Cuba, he said. | 
