Yahoo! September 22, 2000
Cuba Urged on Family Reunification
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK, 22 (AP) - The United States has urged Cuba to support the
reunification of divided families in the same way it championed the return of
6-year-old shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez to his Cuban father, a senior State
Department official said.
Citing Cuba's "very heartening'' support for Elian, U.S. officials gave
the Cuban delegation at the first U.S.-Cuban migration talks this year a list of
divided families that want to be reunited in the United States, said Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield.
Washington also urged President Fidel Castro's government to drop barriers
to the legal departure of Cubans and to allow U.S. officials to register a new
pool of Cubans interested in legally migrating to the United States, hopefully
in 2001, he said after Thursday's talks.
While there was no immediate response on these issues, Brownfield said both
countries expressed a commitment to end the organized criminal smuggling of
Cubans to the United States.
"Both sides expressed their commitment to enforce their laws to put a
stop to this dangerous and totally unnecessary practice,'' he told a news
conference.
The U.S. assessment of the meeting was far more measured than a Cuban
government communique which complained that "absolutely nothing had come
out of'' the meeting and called for a mass mobilization Monday to protest
American immigration policies.
The statement also blamed U.S. immigration policies for this week's
commandeering of a state-owned crop-duster plane to fly a group of people out of
Cuba.
The crop duster crashed Tuesday in the southern Gulf of Mexico about 50
miles west of Cuba, killing one of the 10 people on board. The others were
rescued by a merchant ship and taken to Key West, Fla.
Cuba charges the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act encourages its citizens to
undertake risky journeys to the United States because the law allows any Cuban
who reaches American soil to apply for U.S. residency. Most Cubans picked up at
sea are repatriated.
"So no other alternative remains except to battle without truce against
the brutal and murderous (Cuban Adjustment Act), which everyday draws a bit more
Cuban blood,'' the Cuban statement added.
The talks are held under accords reached after the 1994 migration crisis
when more than 30,000 rafters and boaters set out across the Florida Straits.
Since January 1995, the agreement has enabled 133,000 Cubans to migrate legally
to the United States.
Talks are normally held twice a year, alternating between Havana and New
York. The last talks were in Havana in December and the next round should have
been in June but they were delayed by the Cubans during the controversy over
Elian.
Elian was returned from the United States to Juan Miguel Gonzalez, his
father in Cuba, in late June after a seven-month legal battle with the boy's
relatives in Miami. During the battle, the Cuban government argued the boy
should be with his father and the family not split up.
Brownfield indicated that the United States thought Cuba might cancel
Thursday's meeting because of the crop-duster theft.
"They did not. And to that extent, I could say we got as much out of
these talks today as we realistically thought we would - or could - get,'' he
said.
During the meeting, the U.S. government also questioned Cuba's demand for
$600 in U.S. currency - the equivalent of an average Cuban's salary over three
to four years - in exit fees to migrate, which means poor people can never
afford to depart legally, Brownfield said. And it called for a ban on migration
of medical personnel to be lifted.
Cuba's delegation at the meeting was headed by National Assembly President
Ricardo Alarcon.
Cuba Protests Taking of Cuban Plane
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 22 (AP) - The Cuban government called Thursday for a mass
mobilization next week to protest American immigration policies it blames for
this week's commandeering of a state-owned plane to fly a group of people out of
the country.
The announcement came at the end of an evening public affairs program
examining the Tuesday flight of a crop-duster plane out of Cuba by a pilot who
stopped to pick up his family and friends before leaving.
Cubans will gather at 9 a.m. Monday to express "their most energetic
protest'' at the plaza constructed outside the U.S. Interests Section during the
national campaign to repatriate 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, a moderator on the
program said, reading a prepared statement.
The United States had feared that controversy over Tuesday's flight would
disrupt U.S.-Cuba migration talks set for Thursday, but the session was held in
New York as scheduled.
"And to that extent, I could say we got as much out of these talks
today as we realistically thought we would - or could - get,'' said U.S. Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield in New York.
He said the two sides said they were committed to end the organized criminal
smuggling of Cubans to the United States, but they remained at odds over other
migration issues - including the separation of families.
The Cuban government, however, said in its announcement that "absolutely
nothing'' had come out of the session. "So no other alternative remains
except to battle without truce against the brutal and murderous (Cuban
Adjustment Act), which everyday draws a bit more Cuban blood,'' the statement
added.
It blasted what it called "the continued cynical policies of the
government of the United States to continue promoting and stimulating illegal
departures'' of U.S.-bound Cubans.
Cuba says the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act encourages its citizens to undertake
risky journeys to the United States because the law allows any Cuban who reaches
American soil to apply for U.S. residency. Most Cubans picked up at sea are
repatriated.
Washington accuses Havana of provoking the risky journeys by preventing
Cubans who have U.S. visas from legally leaving the island. Cuban officials deny
the charge.
In the evening communique, the government also complained that American
authorities "have not even moved a finger'' to break up U.S.-based
smuggling rings that charge Cubans thousands of dollars to be transported to the
United States.
The talks, being held at a New York office, were led by Brownfield and
Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly and a confidant of
President Fidel Castro.
The most important item on the U.S. agenda was raised three weeks ago when
the State Department officially protested that President Fidel Castro's
government was preventing Cubans who have U.S. visas from legally leaving the
island. As a result, would-be immigrants had to attempt high-risk escapes by
boat or plane.
"Our point to them ... is if you close the route of legal migration to
a bloc or a group of people, you are merely encouraging them to find alternative
ways to depart,'' Brownfield said.
It was unknown if Cuba intended to launch a new round of rallies, marches
and other gatherings such as those that absorbed the nation during the
seven-month campaign to repatriate Elian, who returned to Cuba in late June
following a protracted custody battle.
The crop duster at the center of the current dispute crashed Tuesday in the
southern Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles west of Cuba, killing one of the 10
people on board. The others were rescued by a merchant ship and taken to Key
West, Fla.
INS Clears Way For Rescued Cubans
By Adrian Sainz, Associated Press Writer
KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) - Immigration officials cleared the way Thursday for all
nine Cubans who survived a plane crash at sea to stay in the United States and
seek residency.
Six of the survivors were released from the Krome Detention Center and taken
to a clinic for a medical checkup. They then were released to family members in
Miami, attorney Roberto Villasante said.
All were paroled to the United States, allowing them to apply for residency,
said Patricia Mancha, spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization
Service. That process can begin next September.
Parole also was expected for the remaining survivors, 6-year-old Andy
Fuentes and his parents. Andy's American relatives took the boy to Kmart on
Thursday, helping him get some much-needed shoes as well as inline skates,
basketball, football, baseball bat and helmet and blue socks.
"I had a pair of skates in Cuba,'' the boy told his Cuban-American
grandfather and uncle in Spanish. "They were made of plastic, and they were
garbage.''
His parents - Rodolfo Fuentes and Liliana Ponzoa, both 36 - remained in a
Key West hospital but were expected to be released Friday.
The family and seven others left Cuba on Tuesday, taking off from a rural
airfield in a Soviet-built crop-duster. Low on fuel, the plane was ditched into
the Gulf of Mexico between Cuba and Mexico, killing one of the men aboard. The
others were rescued by a nearby cargo ship.
"The escape ... was planned way before,'' said Fuentes' brother,
Rafael, who said he talked to Rodolfo in the hospital. "The bad part is
that the pilot got lost ... The pilot realized he was running out of fuel so he
stopped looking for land and started looking for a boat.''
The survivors were taken to Key West and Miami, where they were interviewed
by U.S. immigration officials to determine if they are eligible to stay in the
United States.
The Cuban Adjustment Act allows Cubans who reach American soil to apply for
U.S. residency, while most Cubans picked up at sea are repatriated.
Complicating the fate of the crash survivors were the circumstances of the
flight. In the past, federal authorities have returned hijackers to Cuba for
prosecution or has put them on trial but the FBI (news - web sites) said
Thursday that this week's flight was not a hijacking.
The Cuban government called the theft of a state-owned plane an act of
piracy. It said the topic was raised during migration talks between the two
countries Thursday in New York but remained unresolved.
In response, Cubans will gather for a national protest similar to those held
frequently during the national campaign to repatriate 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez,
a moderator on an evening public affairs program said Wednesday.
Those released from the detention center in Miami were the pilot, Lenin
Iglesias Hernandez, his wife, Mercedes Martinez, 34, their sons Erik, 13, and
Danny, 7, and Pavel Puig and Jacquelin Viera, both 28.
Puig's brother Yudel Puig Martinez, 23, died in the crash.
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