Cuba, US to resume talks on migration issues

06/07/2009 14:50:26

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President of the Cuban parliament Ricardo Alarcón. (File photo)

HAVANA, Cuba, July 6, 2009 – Cuba and the United States are poised to resume talks on migration issues any time now, although the five Cuban agents imprisoned in the US remain "a formidable obstacle" to normalising bilateral relations, according to president of the Cuban parliament Ricardo Alarcón.

Their continued detention proves there is still "official US complicity with terrorism against Cuba," Alarcón added.

"There can be no normal relations between two countries if one is harbouring and supporting terrorist activities, on its own territory, against the other," he said.

In an interview with IPS, Alarcón said US President Barack Obama, whom he regards as "an honest person" could solve the case in a number of ways: "He could reduce their sentences or pardon them.”

The head of the Cuban parliament is an expert negotiator with the US and the most visible government leader in the campaign to free Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino and René González, who were convicted of spying and are serving long sentences in different US prisons.

Alarcón has confirmed that the six-monthly bilateral talks to review progress on the 1994 and 1995 migration agreements, interrupted by Bush in January 2004, are to be resumed. The forthcoming round will be held in the United States which, as the host country, will set the start date.

According to Alarcón, the migration talks could be a framework for the two countries to come closer on further cooperation in areas like combating terrorism, drug trafficking and human trafficking. Cuba proposed these as possible areas for bilateral discussions in 2001, but to no avail.

"Just because two countries have very bad relations doesn't mean that they can't communicate. At the naval base in Guantánamo Bay (in eastern Cuba), the place that most clearly symbolises confrontation, there is regular contact, in the interests of both military establishments," he said.

In his view, such contacts are "an opportunity to talk to the other side, to find out what they are thinking”.

"Nearly always, ever since the days of (former US president) John Kennedy (1961-1963), there have been secret private contacts between both sides. The one who cut off all communication was Bush.” (Adapted from IPS)

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