3rd Conference on the Nation and Emigration
 

• Beginning June 1, Cuba is to authorize its citizens resident in
other countries to visit without applying for a visa

BY JEAN-GUY ALLARD—Special for Granma International—

CUBAN Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque confirmed that commencing June 1, Cubans who live abroad may visit without applying for a visa, requiring only a valid passport authorized by Cuban consulates in their countries of residence.

Announcing the 3rd International Conference on the Nation and Emigration, which takes place May 21-23, bringing together 200 emigrants from 40 countries, Pérez Roque pointed out that while the Cuban government has adopted measures in recent years to favor exchange between those who reside abroad and those who live on the island, the U.S. authorities have continually made such relations more difficult.

And that is even more the case in the wake of the new measures announced a few days ago by the George W. Bush administration, he emphasized.

“In the last few days, it has become clear who is opposed to family reunions,” Pérez underlined. He explained that it is the U.S. government that is adopting measures to prevent Cubans from visiting their families, that is propitiating measures to keep Cubans resident in the United States from being visited, and that is opposed to Cubans living in that country from sending financial help to Cubans living on the island.

POWELL WOULD HAVE TO EXPLAIN HIMSELF

Those are the same U.S. authorities that are now proclaiming that an elderly aunt or cousin is not part of the family.

“The U.S. government defended the idea that Elián González’s great-uncle was a close relative and thus had the right to be child’s guardian, and that those relatives in Miami were his close relatives. When they were maneuvering to kidnap the child, take him away from his father, they said that the great-uncle had the same rights as the father,” he recalled. He added, “Secretary (of State) Colin Powell would have to explain why great-uncles were considered close family in order to kidnap Elián, but in the case of these measures, aunts and cousins are no longer part of the family.”

Pérez emphasized how the U.S. government has historically manipulated the issue of emigration against the Cuban Revolution.

“It was the U.S. government that organized Operation Peter Pan, in which 14,000 minors were taken to the United States with all the human and social drama that that implies. It is the U.S. government that maintains the current Cuban Adjustment Act and the policy of “wet foot, dry foot,” which encourages illegal immigration and thus is responsible for Cubans who have died trying to emigrate illegally, many of them having been rejected in legal attempts to emigrate to the United States; and it is the U.S. government that is blocking Cubans from visiting their relatives in the United States.”

EMIGRANTS, REFUGEES, EXILES

Referring to the language often used by the foreign press when it mentions Cuban emigrants, Pérez recalled how “when a Mexican arrives in the United States, he’s called an immigrant; if a Cuban arrives, it’s said that he is fleeing. A Central American who lives in Miami is an immigrant; a Cuba there is a refugee, an exile...”

“All of this has political connotations to use the issue as part of the campaign against Cuba,” he emphasized.

Felipe listed 14 measures that have been taken since the first Nation and Emigration Conference in 1994 favoring contact with Cuban immigrants. They include a reduction of the minimum age for traveling abroad, which now stands at 18 years; new regulations that permit foreign residence for Cubans or the permanent return of retired Cubans; and even the recent announcement that visits to Cuba require only a valid passport for all Cuban immigrants, which comes into effect on June 1.

167,710 CUBANS RESIDENT ABROAD TRAVELED TO CUBA IN 2003

Pérez also provided revealing statistics on migration. In 2003, 167,710 Cubans living abroad traveled to Cuba, compared to 35,000 in 1994. Of the former, 115,142 of them came from the United States; that is, one out of 10 Cubans who live in that country. There are 50,000 Cubans living abroad without having emigrated, and 34,000 of them visited Cuba in 2003. Some 113,000 Cubans traveled abroad last year, 40,000 for personal reasons.

Nevertheless, because the U.S. authorities did not grant them visas, only 6,757 Cubans traveled to the U.S. in 2003, compared to 2000, when 37,983 did so, Pérez disclosed.

It is estimated that approximately 1.5 million Cubans live abroad, in 100 countries, including those born on the island and their children. Of that total number, 1.3 million are resident in the United States, and one million were born on the island.

(Granma) May 19, 2004