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June 6, 2003.
U.S. Demands Exit Visas for 636 Cubans
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK, 6 - The U.S. government presented Cuba with a list of 636 people
denied exit permits by Fidel Castro and demanded Friday that they be allowed to
emigrate to the United States.
Kevin Whitaker, coordinator for Cuban affairs in the U.S. State Department,
presented the list at talks at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations aimed at
promoting orderly migration between the two countries. The talks happen every
six months.
"One of the things that we are very concerned about is that there are
many Cubans who have valid entry documents to enter the United States but are
refused exit permits by the Cuban government," said Richard Grenell,
spokesman for U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte.
Whitaker gave the list to Rafael Cespedes, North American Division Director
in the Cuban Ministry of External Relations.
Cuba was expected to repeat earlier complaints that the United States has
not kept up with a backlog in visa requests by Cubans seeking to emigrate to the
United States.
The talks were set up by 1994 and 1995 accords. The agreements helped stop
an exodus that saw an estimated 30,000 Cubans take to the sea in boats and rafts
in the summer of 1994 in bids to get to the United States.
Under the migration accords, Washington is supposed to grant 20,000 visas
annually to Cubans seeking to emigrate.
The U.S.-Cuban talks are the first since numerous hijacking attempts by
Cubans trying to reach Florida and a Cuban government crackdown on dissidents
that further unraveled already frayed relations between the nations.
Grenell said "the talks are restricted to just the migration accords
with Cuba."
"We feel strongly that illegal Cuban migration is caused by the
repressive and unrepresentative government of Cuba," he said. "If the
Cuban government were open and democratic and could meet the needs of the Cuban
family, we would not see so many Cubans desperate to find freedom in the United
States legally or illegally."
Since the last migration talks in Havana on Dec. 17, Cuba has seen a string
of hijackings of passenger planes and a ferry by armed people trying to reach
American shores.
The hijackings stopped after the April 11 firing-squad executions of three
men who tried to hijack a ferry full of passengers. Although the men were armed
and threatened passengers, no one was hurt in the hijack attempt.
This spring, Cuban authorities also sentenced 75 dissidents to prison terms
of up to 28 years on charges they conspired with U.S. diplomats to undermine
Fidel Castro's government. The dissidents and American officials denied the
accusations.
US wants Cuba to remove barriers to orderly emigration
WASHINGTON, 6 (AFP) - The United States is expected to ask Cuba to remove
barriers to orderly emigration in semiannual talks on the issue, the State
Department said.
Spokesman Philip Reeker said Washington would press Havana to adhere to
accords on migration signed in 1994 and 1995. The accords were designed to
provide for orderly emigration from the communist island to the United States.
"While the accords are largely achieving their central purpose of
providing that only safe, legal, and orderly migration occurs from Cuba to the
United States, we will again voice our concerns about Cuban actions which impede
such safe migration and prevent family reunification," Reeker said on
Thursday.
"We will underline the need for Cuba to issue exit permits to all
qualified migrants, not to discriminate against medical professionals in issuing
such permits and to reduce the extremely high fees it charges migrants."
Friday's meeting in New York is part of a series of contacts between the two
countries called for under the accord. The United States and Havana do not have
diplomatic relations, and the meeting comes at a time of worsening relations
between the two countries.
Cuba, for its part, said it would request a detailed analysis of several
recent incidents involving migrants to the United States. The Foreign Ministry's
statement did not specify which incidents, but they are likely to include the
hijacking of two Cuban commercial airliners and a ferry.
The two hijacked planes -- which landed March 19 and April 1 -- were sold at
auction to pay a judgment against Havana in a US court, and the six hijackers
are awaiting trial in Florida.
Three men who tried to hijack a ferry April 2 to get to the United States
were not as lucky. They were arrested by Cuban authorities and summarily
executed.
National Assembly head Ricardo Alarcon said Havana planned to accuse
Washington of "very serious violations that are taking place,"
including granting an insufficient number of visas to Cubans.
"I don't have today's numbers, and it's changing day by day as is
logical, but in the first half of the current US fiscal year the number was well
below what it should be for them to fulfill their obligation," Alarcon
said.
The agreement between Cuba and the United States obligates Washington to
give visas to 20,000 Cubans each year and to return all migrants found at sea or
on the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Havana, in return, agreed to takes steps
to prevent illegal migration and accept those repatriated without penalty.
Cuba Announces Bid for 2012 Olympics
HAVANA, 6 (AP) - Havana formally entered its bid to host the 2012 Olympics
after a special meeting Friday of the Cuban Olympic Committee.
Havana Mayor Juan Continou said Cuba's strong international sports program
makes it worthy of hosting the showcase event. The last major sports event
staged by Cuba was the 1991 Pan American Games.
In choosing an Olympics site, "athletic merits should be a priority,
not the wealth of a country, nor sponsors, nor television," said Jose Ramon
Fernandez, president of the Cuban Olympic Committee.
Cash-strapped communist Cuba traditionally has opposed the commercialization
of sports.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque also was on hand to lend the
national government's backing of Havana's bid.
Cuba would be a long shot in a strong field of bidders, including New York,
Moscow, London and Paris. Havana also bid on the 2008 Olympics, which went to
Beijing.
The deadline for bids is in July and the host will be selected in 2005.
Cuban Exile Leader Arrested in Miami
MIAMI, 6 (AP) - A prominent Cuban exile leader has been arrested on an
illegal immigration charge because he never applied for U.S. residency.
Ramon Saul Sanchez, director of the anti-Castro group Democracy Movement,
was arrested 36 years after he first entered the United States.
Under guidelines tightened after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, non-U.S.
citizens without proper immigration papers cannot obtain or renew a Florida
driver's license.
So Sanchez, 49, decided to apply for permanent residence or a work permit
and was given an appointment for Tuesday. That's when he was arrested.
Sanchez could be deported, but because of hostile relations between the
United States and Cuba, he probably will not be. And under a 2001 Supreme Court
ruling, the government cannot detain him indefinitely.
Sanchez, released after his arrest, said he plans to plead before an
immigration judge Sept. 23.
"While I am not going to encourage them to send me back, I will not
resist if they want to send me back," he said. "I leave that in their
conscience."
Sanchez left Cuba in 1967 and was supposed to apply for legal residency
within a year, but never did because he said he considered himself a political
refugee who would one day return to fight for democracy. Sanchez said he now
wants to become a legal resident. | 
