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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Migration talks canceled
The State Department calls off a meeting
with Cuban officials over immigration, accusing
Havana of stalling.
By Juan O. Tamayo. jtamayo@herald.com.
Posted on Thu, Jan. 08, 2004.
Enforcing President Bush's get-tough policy
on Havana, the State Department has canceled
a meeting with Cuban officials on immigration
set for today, charging that Havana has
long been stalling on five critical issues.
''The U.S. is willing to reconsider scheduling
the next round of migration talks at such
time as Cuba agrees to a productive agenda,
including a commitment to discussions of
these five issues,'' a knowledgeable department
official said Wednesday.
The cancellation was another sign of Bush's
decision last year to toughen U.S. policies
on Cuba, including enforcement of the trade
embargo and tourism ban, amid complaints
by Cuban Americans that he had done little
to oppose the government of President Fidel
Castro.
''The president's direction is to do everything
we can to advance his policy goals. We frankly
came to the conclusion that it doesn't suit
any national interests to hold these meetings,''
the State Department official said.
CONDEMNATION
The Cuban government condemned the U.S.
decision. ''The U.S. rejection is an irresponsible
action that does not serve the true national
interests of the United States,'' the Foreign
Ministry said in a statement issued late
Tuesday.
The biannual migration talks, hosted alternately
by Cuba and the United States, were launched
in 1994 to seek the safe, orderly and legal
migration of Cubans to the United States
and avoid chaos such as the balsero crisis
in 1994 and the Mariel boatlift in 1980.
More than 21,000 Cubans received U.S. immigration
visas in 2003 alone, while several thousand
would-be migrants intercepted at sea were
repatriated aboard U.S. Coast Guard cutters.
UPS AND DOWNS
While the meetings almost never stray outside
immigration issues and into more significant
political or trade questions, they tend
to reflect the ups and downs in U.S.-Cuba
relations -- now at their worst point since
Cuba's 1996 killing of four Miamians and
members of the Brothers to the Rescue group.
Bush administration officials said the
decision to cancel the meeting todayresulted
from years of frustration with Cuba's failure
to address the five critical U.S. concerns.
They involve Cuba's refusal to allow some
of its citizens to emigrate; its veto of
a new U.S. visa lottery for Cubans; its
refusal to allow U.S. diplomats in Havana
to check on the welfare of repatriated Cubans;
its refusal to accept the deportation of
Cubans convicted of crimes in the United
States, and its restriction of Coast Guard
repatriation trips to the shallow-water
port of Cabañas.
Cuba's foreign ministry late Tuesday called
the U.S. explanation of the cancellations
''unrealistic and absurd'' and said it only
served the interests of "a small group
of ultra-reactionary people interested in
continuing the U.S. policy of hostility
and aggression toward Cuba.''
U.S. officials said they informed Havana
of the decision to cancel the meeting on
Monday. There was no immediate explanation
for why Havana took so long to make the
cancellation public.
The five U.S. issues, the Cuban ministry
statement added, lacked ''the slightest
significance to the advancement of the Migration
Accords'' signed in 1994 after the balsero
crisis.
''Clearly,'' the statement added, 'in the
imperial language of the U.S. officials,
'dealing seriously' means that Cuba should
be willing to make every unilateral concession
needed and give in to every whim and demand
of the U.S. authorities.''
After underscoring that it has ''never
refused to discuss and analyze any issue
brought up by U.S. officials'' during the
migration talks, the Foreign Ministry said
it was "willing to seriously discuss
. . . all the issues mentioned by U.S. authorities.''
The statement added that the U.S. decision
had more to do with ''Miami politics'' --
a reference to the Cuban exile community
that opposes the Castro government.
WHY TALKS WERE CANCELED
The State Department's reasons for canceling
immigration talks with Cuba:
o Havana is refusing exit permits to several
hundred Cubans who already have U.S. visas.
Cuba says they are mostly doctors and high-level
technicians whose skills are in high demand.
U.S. says the decisions are "capricious
or politically motivated.''
o Cuba vetoed a new registration for U.S.
visa lottery. During the last sign-up in
1998, 541,000 applications were received
in 30 days. Washington wants new registration
to refresh the pool of applicants and bolster
the hopes of those who did not apply in
1998. Cuba insists there are plenty of names
left over from 1998 for new lottery drawings.
o Havana limits U.S. Coast Guard repatriation
trips to port of Cabañas, west of
Havana, which U.S. says is too shallow for
the 210-foot cutters it wants to use. Now,
110-foot cutters must be taken off counter-drug
and other missions to make the trip. But
Cuba says a 210-footer docked in Cabañas
in 1994.
o Cuba is denying U.S. diplomats in Havana
permission to visit Cubans repatriated by
the U.S. and ensure the Havana government
is fulfilling its 1994 promise to not punish
anyone who tries to leave illegally and
is returned by the U.S.
o Havana refuses to accept the return of
''thousands'' of Cuban ''excludables'' --
those convicted of crimes in the U.S. and
ordered deported after finishing their jail
terms.
South Carolina trade delegation in Cuba
Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. - A trade delegation led
by Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer is in Cuba this
week for talks on getting Cuba to buy South
Carolina agricultural products.
Three years ago, the United States loosened
its 42-year-old embargo on trading with
Cuba to allow shipments of food, agricultural
goods and medicine to the island nation
of 11 million.
Bauer and the delegation arrived Wednesday
for four days of talks.
Besides Bauer, Agriculture Commissioner
Charles Sharpe, state Rep. Chip Limehouse,
R-Charleston, and executives of Charleston-based
Maybank Shipping are in Cuba.
They met Wednesday with Pedro Alvarez Borrego,
the chairman and chief executive officer
of Alimport, Cuba's government-run food
import agency.
The state delegation hopes to sign an agreement
to sell agricultural goods including cattle,
peaches and poultry.
The delegation is "excited about forging
new relationships to foster the export of
agricultural goods from South Carolina,"
Bauer said before leaving.
In all, 34 states produce goods for export
to Cuba, said John Kavulich, president of
the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
The New York-based nonprofit group provides
research for U.S. businesses wanting to
trade with Cuba.
Several states in the Southeast are trading
with Cuba. Alabama ships dairy cattle while
Georgia sends poultry and Florida exports
everything from seafood to fruit.
It was just a matter of time before South
Carolina joined in, said College of Charleston
political science professor Doug Friedman,
who has studied Cuban politics and has traveled
there with the college's study-abroad program.
"South Carolina is an agricultural
state. Certainly, it sees itself as sort
of losing out on a market that is a natural
fit," he said. "It would be good
for small farmers, which are hurting in
this state."
Information from: The Post And Courier
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