By Don Bohning. dbohning@herald.com. Published Wednesday, August 30, 2000, in the Miami Herald
The Clinton administration has denied a visa to Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón to travel to the United States for an international parliamentary conference, State Department officials said Tuesday.
Alarcón's personal assistant also was refused a visa, but visas were granted two Cuban National Assembly deputies to attend the three-day conference in that opens today in New York, according to U.S. officials.
The visa was rejected a day after a stiff U.S. diplomatic note to Havana followed up by a statement from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright criticizing the Cuban government for withholding exit permits to Cubans who already hold U.S. visas.
The rejection also coincided with increasing indications that Cuban President Fidel Castro would be among the more than 100 heads of government attending a Millennium Summit at the United Nations next week.
As late as Monday evening, Peter Romero, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said a decision on Alarcón's visa had not been made.
But he indicated that if the visa were rejected it could be linked to what the United States considers Cuba's failure to live up to 1994 and 1995 immigration agreements.
"One way or another,'' said Romero, "if the Cuban government wants to walk away from the accords we can be very strict constructionist on other things, too.''
Albright, following the diplomatic note to Cuba about the accords, said Havana's actions violated agreements with the United States, international standards and "fundamental human decency.''
She said she ordered the formal protest because "the government of Cuba is increasingly obstructing the safe, legal and orderly migration of individuals from Cuba.''
The Inter-Parliamentary Union, based in the Hague, a worldwide body of parliaments, scheduled this week's meeting of parliamentary presidents at the United Nations.
The IPU is not a U.N. organization nor is the meeting U.N.-sponsored. That being the case, the State Department said the U.N. headquarters agreement did not require it to issue visas to those attending.
The rejection of visas for Alarcón and his personal assistant and the granting of visas to two other Cuban parliamentarians is consistent with recent policy that would "streamline visa issuance for qualified persons other than senior Cuban government officials,'' said a State
Department official.
More than 140 countries are expected to send delegations, including many parliamentary leaders, to the IPU meeting.
There was no immediate comment from Cuban officials, but Cuban diplomats at the United Nations had indicated earlier that if Alarcón's visa were rejected they would raise the issue at next week's Millennium Summit.
Najma Heptulla, president of the Inter-Parliamentary Council, the IPU's overseeing body, said in New York that the U.S. decision to bar Alarcón was unfortunate.
"This is a conference of presiding officers,'' she said.
Special correspondent Stewart Stogel at the United Nations and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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