CUBA: OFFICIALS FROM CUBA AND THE UNITED STATES ARRIVE TO TO REVIEW BILATERAL IMMIGRATION ACCORDS IN FIRST OFFICIAL MEETING SINCE PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON'S RE-ELECTION

Record ID: 337672

  • Title: CUBA: OFFICIALS FROM CUBA AND THE UNITED STATES ARRIVE TO TO REVIEW BILATERAL IMMIGRATION ACCORDS IN FIRST OFFICIAL MEETING SINCE PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON'S RE-ELECTION
  • Date: 4th December 1996
  • Summary: HAVANA, CUBA (DECEMBER 4, 1996) RTV 1. GV CONVENTION CENTRE; MEDIA; CARS ARRIVING (3 SHOTS) 0.10 2. LV CUBAN DELEGATION ARRIVING. 0.19 3. SMV AMERCICAN DELEGATION CAR ARRIVING 0.33 4. LV AMERICAN DELEGATION ARRIVING (3 SHOTS) 1.10 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 19th December 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HAVANA, CUBA
  • City:
  • Country: Cuba CARIBBEAN
  • Reuters ID: LVABDHOZ6FGP1GFTX0ENVD8XIJ8R
  • Story Text: INTRO: Senior officials from Cuba and the United States arrived in Havana on Wednesday (December 4) to review bilateral immigration accords in what will be the first official public contact between the two governments since President Bill Clinton's re-election last month.

    Washington and Havana, which do not have diplomatic ties, have held periodic meetings to discuss immigration accords they signed in September 1994 and May 1995 aimed at halting the flow of illegal Cuban immigrants to the United States.

    They last met for such talks in November 1995 in New York.

    Since then, there has been a notable chill in already frosty relations, triggered by Cuba's shooting down of two small, private U.S. planes in February and Washington's subsequent tightening of its longstanding economic embargo.

    According to Cuban officials, these tensions delayed the latest round of talks.

    The meeting at Havana's Convention Centre on Wednesday and Thursday will be headed on the Cuban side by parliamentary president Ricardo Alarcon, a former foreign minister who has headed the Cuban delegation at previous migration talks. John Hamilton, deputy assistant secretary of state for Central American and Caribbean Affairs, will lead the U.S. side.

    Both governments have said they were generally satisfied with implementation of the accords, reached after the "rafter crisis" of August and September 1994 in which more than 30,000 Cubans left the communist-ruled island on rafts and other flimsy vessels for Florida.

    The accords stemmed the flow of boat people. The maximum rate of 30 to 40 per month is well below what it was in past years. But both sides say they have some areas of concern.

    Cuba has said it would like Washington to return four Cubans accused of hijacking small planes to the United States in two separate incidents in July and August. Washington has said it will put all four on trial in the United States and does not intend to return them.

    Despite its reservations, Cuba cooperated with the United States in prosecuting one of the alleged hijackers, former Interior Ministry official Jose Fernandez Pupo, who faces trial next April.

    Cuba was also concerned that not all the illegal migrants intercepted by U.S. authorities were returned home. More than 480 illegal Cubans have been sent back after being intercepted by U.S.

    authorities since May 1995. About 50 were intercepted but have not been returned.

    The United States says in some cases this was because the Cubans were transferred to the United States for medical reasons and then asked for asylum. In other cases, U.S. officials thought they might face persecution in Cuba.

    Washington said it was meeting its requirement to grant 20,000 visas annually to Cubans but not all of those people were able to travel, sometimes because of the high cost or because Cuban authorities did not grant exit permits.

    The cost of emigrating to the United States is about $400 for a medical test, $150 for an exit visa and $50 for a passport, as well as more than $300 for the plane ticket -- a small fortune for Cubans.


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