U.S. Backs Out Of Talks in Cuba On Immigration

[Osolomia]

By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, January 8, 2004

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 7 -- U.S. officials said Wednesday that they have postponed scheduled immigration talks with Cuban officials, prompting the government of President Fidel Castro to charge that the Bush administration is "aggravating the tensions between both countries" for political purposes in an election year.

... The talks, normally held every six months in alternating countries, are the highest-level regular diplomatic contact between the two nations, which have not had formal relations in more than 40 years.

... The White House has taken an increasingly hard line against Castro's government. Bush administration officials have worked to tighten the four-decade-old economic embargo against Cuba and have punished U.S. citizens who have visited Cuba in violation of a near-total travel ban.

Roger Noriega, the State Department's top official on Latin American issues, warned Tuesday that Castro, whom he described as a "broken-down old dictator," was promoting "provocative" policies designed to destabilize democratic governments in the hemisphere.

... "We're moving toward a situation where there are fewer and fewer normal contacts between the two governments," said Wayne Smith, a former top U.S. diplomat in Havana who now works at the Center for International Policy in Washington, which favors increased ties between the countries.

More...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63278-2004Jan7.html

[revcarol]

1. Oh, that "broken down old dictator" is promoting "provocative"

policies, like allowing President Carter to come and giving him an open forum.

This man shoudl be FIRED for even using that language. Since when did the language of DIPLOMACY become the language of Bush-speak? Colin, your a** is grass.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Bush has accelerated his Cuba-harrassment

Do you have any idea where he intends to go with this? He's had John Bolton, Otto Reich, Sec. Powell, and now the former assistant to Jesse Helms, Roger Noriega ALL taking vicious kicks at our tiny island neighbor, with whom people-to-people relations which have been improving steadily, REGARDLESS of _Bush's best laid plans to create a "no turning back" crisis.

(snip)
Cuban envoy lashes out at U.S.

By Rafael Lorente
Washington Bureau
Posted January 9 2004

WASHINGTON · Dagoberto Rodriguez, the lead Cuban diplomat in Washington, on Thursday accused the State Department of using lies as pretexts to cancel migration talks that were to have taken place this week between the two countries.

"The ball is on their side of the court, and we expect them to come up with a date proposal to hold the talks, setting aside those pretexts that only seek to satisfy narrow anti-Cuban interests," said Rodriguez, chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. The interests section serves as the diplomatic mission in place of an embassy because the two countries do not have formal diplomatic relations.

The United States this week canceled the latest semiannual talks that have taken place since the two countries signed migration accords in 1994, saying Cuba refuses to discuss key issues. The 1994 accords were signed between the Clinton administration and the Cuban government to prevent another rafter crisis like the one that brought 37,000 Cubans to U.S. shores that summer.

(snip) Rodriguez also joined the Cuban Foreign Ministry in Havana in complaining about the United States' expulsion last month of a Cuban diplomat for allegedly having criminal ties. Rodriguez said there was no evidence provided and called the expulsion a Christmas gift to anti-Fidel Castro Cuban-Americans in Miami.

"We categorically reject this type of behavior, behavior which is very distant from the ethical and moral behavior that one expects in diplomacy," Rodriguez said.
(snip/...)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-acuba09jan09,0,6418057.story?coll=sfla-news-cuba

[IndianaGreen]

3. I wonder how many DUers will support the troops

when Bush sends them to invade Cuba, or Venezuela, or...

[jamesinca]

4. I wonder how many Cubans will support Bush

That is the question and I think it answers itself. He just kicked off his election year tour of FL and I bet he knows he needs every vote there to win. He needs the Cuban vote and I be this is what he is trying to win with his actions, or should I say pandering.

[IndianaGreen]

5. How many Iraqis support Bush?

Cubans will not dance in the streets, or throw flowers to an American occupation force.

The bulk of the Cuban-Americans in Florida are to the right of Tom DeLay!

[Mika]

8. IG, wrong!

"The bulk of the Cuban-Americans in Florida are to the right of Tom DeLay!"

Not true. Period. That's a "free press" fabrication.


charts from opensecrets.org

[Mika]

7. The MAJORITY of Cuban Americans don't care about Cuba..

.. so much as to rule their politics in total.
-
Poll: Cuban-Americans focus is local
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/6269237.htm


The majority of Cuban Americans want to normalize relations between Cuba and the USA.

Bush's anti Cuba policy does not represent the majority view anywhere, but it does represent the position that is rewarded with campaign dollars by the extremist minority of "exiles" and US taxpayer supported "free" Cuba foundations in S Fla.

----

Poll: Americans on Cuban Sanctions
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=770


Sadly, only ONE candidate for
US president openly states that he
would end this unjust and insane
policy against Cuba AND Americans.

That candidate is Dennis Kucinich.

-The Democratic Presidential Candidates on Cuba-
http://www.lawg.org/pages/new%20pages/Misc/prez-candidates1.htm

[Judi Lynn]

6. Bush's people are making some totally off-the-wall demands

NO U.S. President has EVER made before. This is extremely ODD:

(snip) Posted on Wed, Jan. 07, 2004

U.S. cancels migration talks with Cuba
BY TRACEY EATON
The Dallas Morning News

HAVANA - (KRT) - The United States has abruptly canceled migration talks set to begin Thursday with Cuba, accusing the island nation of refusing to take the negotiations seriously.

(snip) Specifically, he said, the United States would like Cuba to issue exit permits to all qualified citizens; to allow the United States to use a deeper port for repatriations - the current one is too shallow for some Coast Guard cutters; to allow American officials to travel throughout Cuba to interview repatriated migrants to ensure that they haven't suffered reprisals for trying to leave; and to take back Cuban migrants who have reached the United States but have been deemed unfit for residency because they are suspected criminals or otherwise undesirable.

Under the current agreement, the United States is obligated to issue at least 20,000 visas to Cubans per year.

To decide who gets a visa, the United States has conducted three lotteries for Cubans 18 and over. About 189,000 people applied in 1994, 433,000 in 1996 and 541,000 in 1998.

American authorities would like the Cubans to allow another lottery so they can get more young people into the pool of candidates. And they expect that more than one million people would apply. Cuban officials have refused to authorize another lottery.

The Cuban statement said "in the imperial language of U.S. officials … Cuba should be willing to make all necessary unilateral concessions and accept all demands and whims from U.S. authorities." And the Cubans say they won't do that, although they say they welcome dialogue.
(snip/...)

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/world/7656497.htm

They apparently don't care how many people know their appointed head of the U.S. Interests Section, James Cason was described by some Cuban undercover operators who had been undercover for YEARS, among some of the U.S.-supported and recruited "dissidents,"
as conducting activities in Cuba which would have gotten him bounced out of any other country, including this one.

Their new demands would obviously allow U.S. officials complete access anywhere in Cuba, at their discretion, any time they wish.

They DO NOT ALLOW CUBAN OFFICIALS MORE THAN 25 MILES OUTSIDE WASHINGTON D.C. They can do this stuff only as the population remains uninformed by everything but disinformation.

[Judi Lynn]

9. They are throwing out a Cuban diplomat

claiming he's involved in drug trafficking, an utterly bogus charge.


(snip)
Posted on Fri, Jan. 09, 2004

CUBA
Claims of drug ties in envoy's expulsion rejected
From Herald Staff and Wire Reports

HAVANA - The Cuban government Thursday defended a Cuban diplomat expelled from Washington last month, reportedly because of his association with drug trafficking.

''The Foreign Ministry totally rejects and categorically denies that comrade Roberto Socorro García has associated with people or activities related to drug trafficking in the United States,'' said Rafael Dausá, the ministry's director for North America, in a statement published in Havana.

(snip) The Associated Press quoted unidentified U.S. officials in Washington last week as saying that Socorro was expelled for associating with criminal elements. But another publication later cited anonymous officials accusing Socorro of ``criminal activity related to narco-trafficking.''

The State Department officially would only repeat the standard language whenever a diplomat is expelled: ''activities incompatible with his status as a diplomat.'' But knowledgeable officials said the drug allegation was untrue.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7668209.htm