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REPORTS: CUBA- US |
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Return
of Illegal Migrants a Sign of Improved
Relations?
Patricia
Grogg
HAVANA, (IPS) - Cuba and the United
States achieved at least a slight
rapprochement in their decades-old
conflict Monday by reaffirming
bilateral migration policy after the
U.S. government sent the 15 Cubans
aboard a stolen boat back to the
socialist-run island.
The Fidel Castro government praised
Washington's decision as valuable
contribution towards halting illegal
emigration from Cuba to the United
States, the only issue that is capable
of bringing the two countries to the
negotiating table.
Monday's official declaration by
Havana confirmed the repatriation of
the group that had been aboard a boat
stolen last week in the eastern Cuban
province of Camagüey, 670 km from
Havana, and sailed it towards the
United States. The U.S. Coast Guard
intercepted the boat.
As part of the ”deal” involved in
the return of the would-be emigrants,
the Cuban authorities promised the
U.S. government of George W. Bush that
they would respect the bilateral
accords in force and would not
penalise the boat's repatriated
passengers for ”illegal departure”
from the island.
In April, the Cuban courts condemned
three hijackers of a passenger ferry
to death by firing squad.
The word from Havana Monday was that
”the key responsible figures in the
crimes of forced theft of the boat and
kidnapping” would indeed face trial
in Cuban courts.
But the Castro government assured that
it would take into account the
exceptional circumstances of the case
and would limit ”the corresponding
sanctions to no more than 10 years in
prison and, if appropriate, using the
legal powers available (would
exercise) clemency to reduce that
limit.”
”The return to Cuba of the
participants in the hijacking of the
Gaviota 16 is completely coherent with
the letter and spirit of the Migration
Accords,” said an official statement
released to the foreign press in Cuba.
Those treaties, signed by Cuba and the
United States in 1994 and 1995, commit
both countries ”to direct Cuban
migration toward safe, legal and
orderly channels.”
James Cason, mission chief at the U.S.
Interests Section in Havana (the
United States and Cuba do not have
formal diplomatic relations), stated
that ”hijackings of boats or
aircraft are extremely serious
violations of international law and of
U.S. law.”
In a communiqué read in the broadcast
Monday on Cuba's main midday TV news
programme, Cason said, ”Any
individual of any nationality --
including Cuban -- who hijacks an
aircraft or vessel and successfully
arrives in the United States will be
prosecuted with the full force of the
U.S. legal system.”
Such individuals would be ”rendered
permanently ineligible for lawful
permanent residence in the United
States,” which is exactly the thing
that Cubans who try to leave their
Caribbean island illegally are
seeking.
The U.S. diplomat cited, as an example
of the U.S. commitment to the
migration treaties, the case of
Adelmis Wilson González, who hijacked
a Cubana de Aviación airlines AN-24
on Mar. 31 on the Isle of Youth, a
Cuban island southwest of the main
island.
Wilson González ”was tried in an
open court proceeding, and on July 10,
2003, convicted by a jury of his
peers. He now faces a mandatory
minimum sentence of 20 years in a
federal penitentiary,” said Cason,
insisting on ”only safe, legal, and
orderly migration” from Cuba to the
United States.
”If Cubans desire to migrate to the
United States, they should use only
existing, legal channels to do so,”
he said. ”The United States remains
fully committed to the Migration
Accords.”
Those agreements obligate Washington
to grant 20,000 visas each year to
Cubans wanting to emigrate to the
United States, a stipulation that the
U.S. authorities intend to comply
with, said the Interests Section
chief.
For Cuba, the repatriation of the
people aboard the hijacked boat and
the court ruling on Wilson González
”constitute a valuable contribution
by the U.S. authorities to the fight
against the hijacking of air and sea
vessels for illegal emigration with
the use of violence and force.”
The failed attempt to hijack a boat
Jul. 14 in the western fishing port of
Coloma, in Pinar del Río province,
ended in the deaths of three adults
involved in the crime and left a
10-year-old boy seriously injured.
An initial official statement about
the case did not explain the
circumstances of the deaths of the
hijackers, who were armed with two
pistols and a knife, and shut
themselves inside the cabin of the
boat tied to the pier.
”My impression is that it was an act
of immolation. They killed each other
in an act of desperation,” Elizardo
Sánchez, of the Cuban Commission on
Human Rights and National
Reconciliation, said in comments to
IPS.
Sánchez considers the
”understanding” between the United
States and Cuba on migration issues an
example to be followed in other areas
in which the two countries can work in
a coordinated way, such as fighting
drug trafficking and protecting the
environment.
The U.S. decision Monday to return the
15 Cubans ”discourages unregulated
and illegal emigration, but the
fundamental reason that so many Cubans
want to leave the country is the
failure of the totalitarian model,
which has caused poverty and
desperation,” he said.
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