HAVANA, (Reuters) – U.S.-Cuban cooperation has significantly reduced the number of Cuban migrants making dangerous and illegal voyages to the United States, Havana’s delegation to bilateral migration talks said yesterday.
The talks in Havana were overshadowed by the case of an American contractor jailed in Cuba on suspicion of espionage, and little progress was expected in the negotiations.
But the Cuban delegates released a statement afterward calling the meeting “a fruitful exchange” conducted in an “atmosphere of respect” and said both nations had complied with their commitments under existing migration accords.
In a much more cautious statement, the U.S. State Department said its delegation to the talks “highlighted areas of successful cooperation in migration, while also identifying issues that have been obstacles” to implementing accords.
The meeting was the fourth since U.S. President Barack Obama took office two years ago. The previous talks ended with little agreement in June after U.S. officials protested the jailing of Alan Gross, an American development contractor who was arrested in December 2009.
“As U.S. officials have consistently done, the U.S. delegation raised the case of Alan Gross … and called for his immediate release,” said the U.S. statement.
Cuba’s delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodriguez Barrera said in its declaration the meeting “recognized there has been a significant reduction in risky illegal departures from Cuba to the United States as a result of the efforts carried out by both countries to cope with migrant smuggling and illegal migration”.
U.S. Coast Guard data bear that out. The number of Cuban migrants interdicted at sea fell to 2,088 for the year ended Oct. 31, the lowest total in 28 years.
U.S. INTEREST IN ‘CONSTRUCTIVE DISCUSSIONS’
Cuba said it had responded systematically to U.S. requests and provided valuable testimony and evidence to help prosecute migrant smugglers in U.S. courts.
“Cuba reiterated its interest in strengthening bilateral cooperation in this area,” the statement said.
The talks focus on ways to prevent mass exoduses of Cubans but also serve as the most important regular contact between the two countries, which do not have formal diplomatic ties.
“Engaging in these talks underscores our interest in pursuing constructive discussions with the government of Cuba to advance U.S. interests,” the U.S. statement said.
The Gross case has proved a sticking point in U.S.-Cuban relations, with U.S. diplomats saying his imprisonment is preventing attempts by Washington to improve ties with communist-ruled Cuba.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson led the American delegation.
The talks concern a 1994 agreement to maintain orderly migration and avoid repeats of the 1980 Mariel boatlift and 1994 wave of boat people.
Cuba wants an end to the U.S. policy of granting Cubans who reach U.S. shores almost automatic residency, which Havana says encourages illegal and dangerous migration.
Rodriguez said after the meeting that legal, safe and orderly migration between the two nations could not occur as long as that policy was in place.
The two countries also held talks recently on resuming direct mail service and cooperation on some international drug trafficking cases.
But Cuba complains that little has changed under the Obama administration, which has maintained economic sanctions and U.S. support for dissidents.
Some Cuban officials say privately that relations are likely to remain strained after the Republican Party won the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
They point to the new head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-American lawmaker and fierce critic of President Raul Castro.
