World

Cuba, U.S. Talk Migration

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 11, 2000 / 12:09 PM EST / CBS

The growing practice of alien smuggling and a Cold War-era law that allows Cubans who reach American soil to apply for residency were on the agenda Monday as Cuban and U.S. officials held the latest round of migration talks in Havana.

The talks in Havana, led by National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon for Cuba and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield for the United States, were taking place in Havana's Conventions' Palace.

"These talks have on the table any issue related to migration," Brownfield told reporters. "We have a number of issues that we wish to raise and we have no doubt they also have issues they want to raise with us."

Havana charges that U.S. policies encourage alien smuggling, specifically citing laws that allow Cubans who reach the United States to avoid deportation. Under the so-called "wet foot/dry foot" policy, Cubans picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard are returned to Cuba; those who reach American soil are able to stay.

U.S. officials say Cubans want to leave because they are dissatisfied with the economic failings and authoritarian political system of President Fidel Castro.

Mr. Putin Goes To Cuba

Russian President Vladimir Putin this week visits Cuba, the Soviet empire's former outpost in the western hemisphere becoming the latest stop in a campaign to restore ties with one-time allies that remain huge debtors.

Putin's trip will be the first by a Russian leader since Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev visited in 1989.

After years of chilly relations between Cuban leader Fidel Castro and former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Putin's three-day visit is expected to freshen relations between two states that have taken differing paths over the last decade.

From Havana Putin flies to Canada – bypassing the United States.
(Sources: Reuters, AP)

Washington accuses Havana of rigidly restricting legal exits from the island and complains about what it says are Cuban barriers to "legal and orderly" migration to the United States.

The two countries have been holding periodic talks on migration issues since 1994. That summer, Cuba briefly lowered its borders and more than 30,000 citizens to leave on boats and rafts for the United States.

The last round waheld in New York in September. The talks were suspended during the international custody dispute over Elian Gonzalez, the young Cuban boy who was rescued in the waters off Florida after the boat he was in sank, killing his mother and nine others.

Havana blamed the resulting tug-of-war between the child's father in Cuba and the boy's relatives in Miami on the Cuban Adjustment Act. Elian initially remained in the United States under that law.

In Washington last week, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the U.S. delegation on Monday will voice concerns over Cuba's "disproportionately high fees" that departing Cubans must pay.

Another issue, he said, is Cuba's continued denial of exit permits to certain Cuban nationals in possession of valid U.S. entry documents.

Reeker said the United States also is troubled by cases involving the separation of families and by obstacles imposed by Cuba against legal migration by medical professionals.

American officials say they are also concerned about the marked shift toward organized alien smuggling of Cubans to the United States.

"This form of criminal activity for profit needlessly exposes men women and children to loss of life or serious injury despite the existence of ample alternative means of safe, legal and orderly migration," Reeker said.

Both sides have expressed a commitment to put a stop to the practice.