MIGRATION-CUBA: Havana and Washington Start Eighth Round of Talks

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Dec 2 1997 (IPS) - Representatives of the Cuban and U.S. governments met Tuesday in Havana to start the eighth round of talks on migration issues since the 1994 “rafters crisis”.

The dialogue, triggered by the massive exodus of some 30,000 Cubans seeking to reach the United States on rickety watercraft in the summer of 1994, is the single point of agreement between Havana and Washington in a period of rising tension.

Cuba’s state-owned National Information Agency said that the current round of talks “would assess compliance with the migration accords signed by the two countries” in September 1994 and May 1995.

The Sep. 9, 1994 accord which put an end to the “rafters crisis” and committed both countries to normalising the flow of immigration, stipulated that Havana and Washington were to hold periodic talks on migration.

The United States agreed to issue at least 20,000 visas a year to Cubans wishing to emigrate, while Cuba promised to do its utmost to stem unauthorised emigration.

A joint statement released in May 1995 said that all undocumented Cubans caught trying to enter the United States would be sent home, and Cuba would take no reprisals against those accused of “illegal departure.”

The possibility of extending the reach of the accords to the repatriation of all Cubans who successfully make it to the United States was announced at the end of the fifth round of talks in December. It is one of the pending issues to be discussed.

But the talks almost broke down in the wake of the Feb. 24, 1996 shootdown, by the Cuban air force, of two civilian airplanes flown by members of a U.S.-based Cuban exile group, and the passage of the U.S. Helms-Burton Act which stiffens the almost four decades old embargo against Cuba.

The crisis triggered by the shootdown, in which Cuba and the United States faced off in international courts, brought a major setback to the fledgling detente that had begun with the signing of the May 1995 migration accord.

Since then the tension has continued to rise. A new row broke out in November with the Cuban government’s vehement reaction to part of a U.S. bill which describes Cuba as a security threat.

But the migration accords have remained in force, because they arose from the interest of both governments to stem a new wave of illegal emigration, say analysts.

Since May 1995, U.S. authorities sent home to Cuba some 800 undocumented individuals who attempted to reach the United States by sea or through the Guantanamo Naval Base, a U.S. military enclave located some 900 kms from Havana.

The U.S. Interests Section in Havana has also abided by its commitment to issue at least 20,000 visas a year to Cubans who wish to permanently emigrate to the United States and who meet the established requisites.

One of the issues which could be discussed at the current round of talks is Cuba’s request for the extradition of Jose Fernandez Pupo, a former military officer who hijacked a Cuban commercial aircraft and sought asylum in the United States last year.

Fernandez Pupo was acquitted of hijacking charges last summer, but a U.S. immigration judge dismissed his request for asylum.

“The U.S. government has not yet taken any decision on Fernandez Pupo, nor reported whether in accordance with that ruling he will be handed over to Cuban authorities for trial in Cuba,” a public radio station reported here Tuesday.

Cuba may also bring up its reservations with respect to the process of granting visas to those seeking to visit their families in the United States. According to local observers, it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain a visa for visiting relations in the United States, and many prefer to forget the idea rather than apply to the Cuban Interests Section in Havana.

It is said that every one of Cuba’s slightly more than 11 million inhabitants has a close or distant relative in the United States.

As of 1990 1.043 million Cubans were living in that country, accounting for nine percent of the total population of Hispanic origin and 7.5 percent of the state of Florida’s Latinos, according to that year’s census.

‘Granma’, the official publication of the governing Communist Party of Cuba, reported that the eighth round of talks would last two days, headed by the speaker of the Cuban parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Central America and the Caribbean, John Hamilton.

But other reports in Havana say the meeting, which will be held behind closed doors as usual, could end Tuesday.