US-Cuba immigration talks under cloud of mistrust
By PAUL HAVEN
Associated Press Writer
HAVANA -- The last time U.S. diplomats traveled to Havana, they held
secret talks with their Cuban counterparts that were hailed as the most
significant in decades. Almost nothing has gone right for U.S.-Cuba
relations in the five long months since.
When State Department officials sit down with Cuban leaders for
immigration talks Friday, the encounter will take place under a cloud of
mutual mistrust and dashed hopes. Last year's hopes that the election of
President Barack Obama could mean quicker progress toward ending a
half-century of U.S-Cuban enmity now seem a pipe dream.
"Expectations on both sides were perhaps too high, and as a result I
think there is a lot of disappointment," said Robert Pastor, a longtime
foreign policy adviser on hemispheric affairs and professor at American
University.
The delegation will be led by Craig Kelly, deputy assistant secretary of
state for Western Hemisphere affairs and the most senior U.S. official
to travel to Cuba in years. One of Kelly's subordinates, Bisa Williams,
came in September for separate talks aimed at re-establishing direct
mail service.
A State Department spokesman told The Associated Press that Kelly could
venture beyond the meeting's focus and into stickier subjects.
"Other matters of mutual concern may arise in our meetings," Charles
Luoma-Overstreet said.
That surely includes the fate of Alan P. Gross, a 60-year-old U.S.
government contractor from Potomac, Maryland, arrested in Cuba on Dec.
3. Gross - a longtime international development worker who Cuba contends
is a spy - has been held at Havana's high-security Villa Marista jail
without charge for allegedly supplying communication equipment to
members of Cuba's tiny Jewish community.
"This is a matter we have raised on multiple occasions with the Cuban
government and that we will continue to raise with them," said
Luoma-Overstreet. "We believe he should be released and permitted to
return to his family."
After maintaining her silence for weeks, Gross's wife Judy released an
Internet video Thursday pleading for his release.
"Alan's work in Cuba - on behalf of USAID - was with peaceful,
non-dissident, Jewish groups," said a fact sheet accompanying the video.
"His work was humanitarian and nonpolitical."
It said Judy Gross had been allowed three brief phone conversations with
her husband, who has also been visited twice by U.S. consular officials.
Pastor said the timing of the arrest has been particularly chilling for
relations.
"In the eyes of some in the United States, the question is, 'Why did the
Cubans arrest him now?'" he said. "The Cubans apparently knew of his
work and the program for many years, so the fact they arrested him at
this moment has led some in the government to ask what message they are
trying to send."
Things seemed far more positive last September, when Williams stayed on
in Cuba after the mail talks for unannounced meetings with senior
officials and toured a government agricultural facility.
A Cuban official told AP at the time that she also attended a rock
concert that drew hundreds of thousands to the iconic Revolution Plaza,
beneath a giant likeness of revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
The visit raised hopes of a new beginning for relations under Obama, who
has said he wanted to extend a hand of friendship - but it has been all
downhill since then.
In November, the State Department expressed concern after reputed Cuban
security officials briefly detained a well-known blogger, Yoani Sanchez.
Obama later personally responded to a series of questions that Sanchez
posted on her Web site, raising her profile and angering Cuban officials.
Havana held military exercises soon after that a senior army official
said were designed to counter a possible U.S. attack.
More recently, Cuban leaders have been highly critical of Obama's
performance at climate talks in Copenhagen, suspicious of U.S. policy in
Latin America, and downright apoplectic about Cuba's inclusion on a list
of alleged state sponsors of terrorism.
In December, Fidel Castro wrote in an essay that Obama's "friendly smile
and African-American face" are masking Washington's sinister designs on
Latin America. Cuba's foreign minister called the U.S. president an
"imperial and arrogant" liar.
Castro even criticized U.S. relief efforts in quake-devastated Haiti,
accusing Washington of sending troops to "occupy Haitian territory."
The immigration talks resumed last July after a six-year hiatus. Held
twice annually, their aim is to monitor adherence to a 16-year-old
agreement under which the United States issues 20,000 emigration visas
to Cubans per year.
The accord seeks to avoid a repeat of the rafters crisis of 1994, when
Cuba briefly opened its borders and tens of thousands tried to make it
to American soil in nearly anything that would float.
Wayne Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and
former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, said the Obama
White House has fallen into the same pattern as past administrations,
failing to take bold steps to improve relations. And Havana hasn't made
it any easier.
"What can you really expect from these talks?" he said. "It is good they
are being held, and maybe some constructive steps will come of it. But
it is relatively limited."
US-Cuba immigration talks under cloud of mistrust - World AP -
MiamiHerald.com (18 February 2010)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1487132.html
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