CUBA-U.S.: Fate of Migration Accords Hangs on Hijacking of Airplane

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jul 9 1996 (IPS) - The fate of U.S.-Cuban migration accords could hang on the outcome of the hijacking of a Cuban airplane by a passenger seeking asylum in the United States.

According to the May 1995 accords, “the hijacker should be handed over to Cuban authorities,” said Ricardo Alarcon, the president of the Cuban parliament and the government’s representative in the migration talks with the United States.

Local officials have warned that if measures are not taken to set a precedent, Cuba will interpret that the United States is encouraging unauthorised emigration.

‘Granma’, the official publication of the governing Communist Party, reported Tuesday that on Jun. 27 a National Air Services Company airplane was hijacked and steered towards the Guantanamo Naval Base, a U.S. military enclave 971 kilometres from Havana.

The article states that the crew of the AN-2 airplane carrying nine people, two of them minors, was forced at gunpoint by one of the passengers to change the flight plan and land at the Guantanamo airport.

While the Cuban government has not provided information, a U.S. radio station broadcasting towards Cuba identified the hijacker as Lieutenant-Colonel Jose Fernandez Pupo.

White House spokesman Mike McCurry said this week that his government has three options: repatriate the hijacker, try him in the United States or grant him political asylum.

The migration accord stipulates the repatriation of all unauthorised Cuban emigrants, including those who try to use the Guantanamo Naval Base as a springboard to exile.

The recent incident was the first hijacking of an aircraft by would-be refugees since May 1994, when a Cuban pilot took a plane carrying 16 tourists to Miami.

Cubans commandeering air- or watercraft to go to the United States used to receive a hero’s welcome there. But the August 1994 “rafters crisis” — an exodus of more than 30,000 Cubans heading for Florida in rickety boats — led to talks designed to put an end to unauthorised departures and turn emigration into an orderly process.

After negotiations were held on an approximately three month basis since the first round in September 1994, there had been no talks since December 1995.

Although authorities from both countries say the negotiations are going well, local observers point to the “airplane crisis” as the main reason the two sides did not meet last April as expected.

The shooting down of two civilian planes by the Cuban air force on Feb. 24 put an end to the momentary relaxing of tension, and led the Bill Clinton administration to sign the Helms-Burton law, designed to stiffen the U.S. boycott of the island.

Local observers predict a possible suspension of the migration accords, because in the history of Cuban-U.S. relations such treaties have always met their end at the hands of some kind of dispute.

On Sep. 9, 1994, the United States agreed to grant a minimum of 20,000 resident visas a year in exchange for the closing of Cuban coasts to unauthorised emigration.

On May 2, 1995, the United States agreed to repatriate all unauthorised emigrants, and Cuba promised not to take any reprisals against those who attempted to flee the country.

According to the weekly ‘Juventud Rebelde’, the official publication of the Union of Young Communists, by late June 2,435 Cubans had been deported or voluntarily returned to the country.

Experts in Havana say the fact that the accords have not been suspended demonstrates that they serve both U.S. and Cuban interests.

There are rumours in Cuba that the government may lift the restrictions on unauthorised emigration in response to the implementation in August of the Helms-Burton law.

But experts who preferred to remain anonymous told IPS that such a measure would not benefit the government at a time when a certain level of social stability is being achieved.

These sources argued that Cuba’s coastline was left open in August 1994 as an escape valve to counteract a difficult domestic situation that led to the first riots against the government of Fidel Castro, in office since 1959.

“Any measure taken against the Helms-Burton law or the U.S. decision in the hijacking case would deprive Cuba of at least 20,000 visas a year,” said an expert with the Centre on U.S. Studies.

Cubans wishing to emigrate to the United States can apply for a visa or participate in a special raffle. While experts say nearly two million Cubans would like to live abroad, only 435,725 participated in a raffle for 6,000 visas this year.

Tuesday’s article in ‘Granma’ states that the passengers and crew of the airplane hijacked on Jun. 27 “immediately expressed their decision to leave the military enclave,” and returned to Cuban territory in the same airplane.

Parliamentary president Ricardo Alarcon has demanded that the hijacker be tried in the United States in accordance with United Nations anti-hijacking laws or returned to Cuba.