Cuba accuses US of canceling round of immigration talks
Wed Jan 7

HAVANA (AFP) - Cuba has accused the United States of unilaterally canceling a round of immigration talks scheduled for Thursday, saying the US decision was "an irresponsible action."

"The US rejection is an irresponsible action that does not serve the true national interests of the United States," the Cuban foreign ministry said in a statement issued late Tuesday.

It said the decision only served the interests of "a small group of ultra-reactionary people interested in continuing the US policy of hostility and aggression toward Cuba."

The United States and Cuba have been holding periodic talks on immigration issues since 1994 in order to keep the immigration process between the two countries under control.

The Cuban foreign ministry called the US explanation for its decision "unrealistic and absurd."

According to the official statement, Washington called off the talks "until Cuba shows real interest in dealing seriously with 'very important' issues leading to an orderly, legal and safe migration between both countries."

The alleged issues, the Cuban ministry said, lacked "the slightest significance to the advancement of the Migration Accords."

"Clearly," the statement added, "in the imperial language of the US officials, 'dealing seriously' means that Cuba should be willing to make every unilateral concession needed and give in to every whim and demand of the US authorities."

The Cuban foreign ministry said the US decision had more to do with "Miami politics" than US national interests, meaning the Cuban diaspora in Miami, Florida, which opposes any US conciliatory move toward the Communist administration of Cuban President Fidel Castro.

After underscoring that it has "never refused to discuss and analyze any issue brought up by US officials" during migration talks, the Cuban foreign ministry said it was "willing to seriously discuss...all the issues mentioned by US authorities."

It called on Washington to "put aside absurd and useless pretexts that only serve narrow, anti-Cuban interests and follow the true interests of the American people."

Cuba, the statement concluded, will continue to honor and abide by "the word and spirit of the Migration Accords signed by the United States and Cuba and calls on the government of the United States to adopt a similar attitude."

In September, the US State Department accused Cuba of failing to live up to its commitments under joint migration agreements by refusing to issue exit visas to some citizens granted permission to leave the country.

US authorities said Cuba had not addressed US complaints made during the last round of migration talks in June that more than 600 US visa holders had been denied permission to leave Cuba.

The US State Department called on Cuba to end its discriminatory practices and "remove impediments it has placed to full implementation of the accords."

Cuba and the United States have not maintained diplomatic relations since 1961.

US says Cuba to blame for cancellation of immigration talks
Wed Jan 7

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said Cuban intransigence and not US opposition was to blame for the cancellation of a planned round of immigration talks this week.

The State Department said Washington was prepared to go ahead with the talks -- which the Cubans had proposed for Thursday -- but only if Havana would agree to address five areas of US concern in the immigration area.

"The United States is willing to reconsider the scheduling of the next round of migration talks when Cuba informs us that it agrees to a productive agenda, including a commitment to discuss these five issues," spokesman Richard Boucher said.

He identified the five issues as: Cuba's refusal to grant exit permits to qualified Cubans who want to come to the United States, its failure to arrange a new registration system for a visa lottery, the need for Cuba to provide a deep-water port for repatriation, restoring access to Cuban return migrants by US officials in Havana and Cuba's obligation to accept the return of its nationals deemed excludable by the United States.

"We have raised each of these issues in at least the last six sessions of the talks and Cuba has refused to discuss them substantively," Boucher told reporters.

"Consequently when the Cuban government proposed January 8th for the next round of migration talks, we determined that, given the Cuban government's expressed unwillingness to engage on these five most important issues, another round of talks at this point did not serve our interests," he said.

Late Tuesday, Cuba accused the United States of unilaterally cancelling the talks, calling the move "irresponsible" and the explanation "unrealistic and absurd."

The five US issues lack "the slightest significance to the advancement of the Migration Accords," the Cuban foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Clearly, in the imperial language of the US officials, 'dealing seriously' means that Cuba should be willing to make every unilateral concession needed and give in to every whim and demand of the US authorities," it said.

But it added that Havana has "never refused to discuss and analyze any issue brought up by US officials" during migration talks" and that it was "willing to seriously discuss ... all the issues mentioned by US authorities."

Thursday's cancelled talks were to have been part of immigration discussions that the two countries have held periodically since the Migration Accords were signed in 1994 to ensure "safe and orderly" immigration between the Cold War foes.

After the last round of talks in New York in June, the United States accused Cuba in September of failing to live up to its commitments under the accords by refusing to issue exit visas to more than 600 Cuban citizens that held US visas.

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