POLITICS-CUBA: Migration Questions Loom Again

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jun 4 1998 (IPS) - The problem of restive Cubans wanting to leave for a new life ovserseas is again becoming a source of tension in political circles here.

While Havana and Washington have agreed the mass exodus of some 30,000 Cubans on boats that took place in August 1994 must not be repeated, the opposite view is held by many Cuban exile organisations in the U*nited States. Also Nicaragua President Arnoldo Aleman has suddenly emerged as a powerful ally of the Cuban right.

Aleman stated last weekend that Cuba would allow would-be emigrants currently being detain in the Bahamas, and others who have been returned to Cuba, in recent days to take political asylum in Nicaragua. The Cuban Foreign Ministry immediately denied any such agreement had been reached.

Last month, Aleman expressed his willingness to receive all Cubans who wanted to emigrate to Nicaragua while on a visit to the city of Miami under the invitation of the Cuban-American National Foundation – an anti-Castro organization that supports the U.S. governments economic blockade of the Castro regime.

Two days after Aleman’s visit to Miami, the Nicaraguan government announced that Aleman would ask his counterparts in other countries hold the next Ibero-American Summit, scheduled to take place in Cuba, somewhere else.

The supposed migration accord between Cuba and Nicaragua appeared to be an attempt to resolve a polemic issue raised in Miami after the Bahamas began deporting Cubans flocking to their shores on their way to the United States.

In May the Bahamas repatriated 197 Cubans 139 men, 37 women and 21 children – including three renowned Cuban baseball players and a coach who attempted to follow other ball [players to the United States.

Havana, however, quickly described the accord announced by Aleman as “mere fantasy”, reiterating its policy that emigration from Cuban territory would only occur through legal, secure and orderly channels.

The Cuban statement did stress that “we would gladly authorize all Cuban citizens who wish to emigrate LEGALLY to Nicaragua…Cuban citizens need only address the Ministry of the Interior in writing to request authorization to begin the pertinent paperwork – if Mr. Aleman accepts this proposition.”

The statement also made it clear that authorities would not permit any assault on the Nicaraguan embassy, like those that took place in 1990 on several embassies and like the one that almost took place on the Spanish embassy in 1996.

The release of the statement has led to increased security around the Nicaraguan embassy in Havana – while anti-Castro radio stations in the United States began broadcasting the address of the embassy for “interested” persons.

Some officials here speculated that the most radical anti-Castro organiza tions in exile were attempting to provoke a new migration crisis, which would undermine any initiatives in favor of lifting the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

Another wave of illegal immigrants ouring out of Cuba would create conditions similar to that of the shooting down of the two planes in February of 1996. The downing of the two civilian planes was the culmination of multiple violations of Cuban air space by planes belonging to a group of exiles known as “Brothers to the Rescue.”

The incident brought to a head the long-standing tension between Washington and Havana, leading to President Clintons signing of amendments to the Helms-Burton Law, which intensified economic sanctions against Cuba.

Used in the past as a way to put pressure on Washington, a mass exodus now would harm Cuba’s image at a time when there has been a relaxation toward the island in the wake of the visit of Pope John Paul II in January, political observers opined.

Although emigration is seen as an escape valve, it would not be to the governments interest because of the internal disorder that an openin g of the countrys borders would generate, observers believed.

U.S. Coast Guard statistics show an increase in the number of Cubans intercepted at sea from 45 in the first quarter of 1997 to more than 120 in the first three months of 1998.

This increase coincides with the eighth year of the worst economic crisis in Cuba this century, and an official announcement that sugar production, Cuba’s main export earner, will not even reach 3.2 million tons.

The Cuban Catholic Church, for its part, has called on the government to find ways of avoiding emigration which, “just like a river is ever-widening,” if it wants to preserve the social gains of the past three decades. (FIN/IPS-tra/da/mg/ip pr/mg/mk/98)