| WHITE BOOK 2006 >> FOURTH PART >>CHAPTER 2 | ||
CHAPTER 2: POLITICAL MANIPULATION OF THE BILATERAL MIGRATORY RELATIONS BY SUCCESSIVE AMERICAN ADMINISTRATIONS, RESORTED TO BY PRESIDENT BUSH TO THE DETRIMENT OF CUBAN FAMILIES, TOGETHER WITH BANNING THE SMALL NUMBER OF ACADEMIC, CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGES UNDERWAY BETWEEN THE AMERICAN AND CUBAN PEOPLES Cuban Migration to the United States before 1959 Cuba's revolutionary triumph marked a discontinuity in the pattern of migration between Cuba and the United States, reflecting an early decision by Washington to manipulate the migration issue as a basis for destabilization of and aggression towards the process of transformation undertaken by the Cuban people. Migration from Cuba to America started much earlier than the 1959 Revolution: it dates from the Spanish colonial days of the 19th century. By 1870, Cuban immigrants in the United States totalled nearly 12,000, of whom 4,500 had settled in New York, 3,000 in New Orleans and 2,000 in Key West. Both economic and political motives were behind these movements. The flow increased after 1860, as deteriorating relations with Spain caused politically-motivated departures to predominate. 1869 marked the start of one of the most significant periods of emigration from Cuba to the United States, with Key West as the focal point. The exodus included hundreds of tobacco-industry workers and entrepreneurs. Reasons varied: access to modern tobacco-processing techniques; promotion of investment in the principal market (the United States); and uncertainty about Cuba's future after years of economic, political and social crisis - a situation that was exacerbated by the outbreak of the Ten Years' War against Spanish dominion. Between 1869 and 1900, cigar production based on a Cuban labour force became the main source of income for the Key West community. Tampa was another significant destination for Cuban émigrés, their numbers rising from 720 in 1880 to 5,532 in 1890. The Cuban immigrant population declined during the second half of the 1890s, as many returned to Cuba to join the fight for independence. The aftermath of the war was characterized by greater integration of the Cuban immigrants -whose numbers were little changed at some 12,000 - into American society. The dawn of the 20th century was accompanied by a rising trend in emigration - largely to the United States - which culminated during the 1930s. Cuban arrivals on American soil during the 1920s and 30s were mostly workers in search of better jobs, who settled mainly in New York and New Jersey. Like the other immigrants of the area in this period, these were working-class, industrial migrants. Such departures exceeded 40,000 during the 1920s, encouraged by America's immigration policy of that period. They were followed by another 43,000 in the subsequent decade. In the period 1930-1958, those emigrating to the United States, Venezuela and Mexico totalled 135,000. Fluctuations in the outflow reflected the domestic situation in the 1940s and 50s, coupled with changes in US immigration policy and a gradual build-up of anti-immigrant sentiment in American society. During this period, emigrants from Cuba included, as well as workers, those from the small, well heeled section of the population who could afford to travel and live abroad. The United States was favoured by the Cuban bourgeoisie and middle classes as the place to send their children to study; spend holidays and invest part of their wealth in setting up small or medium-sized businesses there. Thus a wide spectrum of interrelations between American and Cuban society became established. The effects of migration and existing kinships combined with other forms of social interchange and much toing and froing of travelers between the two countries, while possible motives for emigration from Cuba became increasingly varied. This was emigration from a backward country to one of the world's most highly developed nations which, moreover, controlled its economic, political and social life. By 1958, the officially registered resident Cuban population in the United States including the descendents of Cubans born there numbered around 125,000. Over 50,000 of these stayed in America after the 1959 revolutionary victory. Prior to January 1959, the level of emigration from Cuba to America (permanent and otherwise) was relatively high compared with the other Central American and Caribbean nations. Between 1950 and 1958, Cubans admitted to the United States as permanent immigrants totalled some 65,200 (more than all the Central American countries put together and 53% of the total from the Caribbean). The number of temporary visitors was also substantial during this period. The total for 1958 of those travelling to the United States on temporary visas was over 72,600. Studies indicate that the flow of emigrants to America would have continued to grow anyway, regardless of the Cuban Revolution, given the conditions of stagnation in the sugar industry and other labour-intensive sectors of the economy. Manipulation of migration arrangements as a weapon against the Cuban Revolution Manipulation of arrangements for immigration from Cuba has been a significant element of the policy of hostility towards the Cuban people pursued by successive US administrations. Its aims have been: discredit its political, economic and social system; rob it of its human capital; impose conditions of emotional and psychological instability among Cuban families; offer sanctuary and immunity from prosecution to terrorists, annexationists and mercenaries in the service of its anti-Cuba policy; create conditions favoring a mass exodus, to be used to feed propaganda campaigns against Cuba and, as a last resort, to provide a pretext for military intervention. Before the Revolution, Cubans arriving on American soil were treated entirely without special privileges, like immigrants from any other country. Those landing illegally were invariably deported or imprisoned. However, in 1959 the US authorities drastically changed their treatment of Cubans arriving, whatever the circumstances. To be accepted, the would-be immigrant had merely to express his or her opposition to the Revolution. Not one of the torturers, not one of those responsible for the thousands of extrajudicial executions carried out by the Batista dictatorship, could be extradited to Cuba to stand trial. A campaign of enticement was mounted to deprive Cuba of its professionals, of qualified personnel in the fields of healthcare, education and the various sectors of industry. The aim was to paralyze the nation by stripping it of its human capital. More than half of the 6,000 doctors in Cuba at the time of the Revolution migrated to the United States, together with hundreds of skilled and otherwise qualified personnel, persuaded by cynical promises and campaigns of disinformation. Every Cuban arriving in US territory was accorded 'refugee' status; the Eisenhower administration set up the Cuban Refugee Emergency Centre in Miami in December 1960. The term 'refugee' was used indiscriminately and entirely without legal basis, with the aim of discrediting Cuba's image abroad, and without reference to the criteria established by the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol. At the end of 1962, Washington abruptly ended flights and legal departures from Cuba to the United States; together with the effects of its economic war on Cuba waged since the Revolution, these measures proved a strong incentive to illegal emigration. The same year, President Kennedy signed Public Act 87-510, the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, which was designed to create the impression that all the Cuban migrants were victims of persecution because of their 'political opinions contrary to the regime'. Cuban emigration to America became an issue of 'national security'. The legislation mentioned included special financial arrangements to support Cuban immigrants. Washington allocated over a billion dollars to the Cuban Refugees Program. In February 1963, the US authorities stepped up their offensive aimed at inciting illegal departures from Cuba, by imposing further restrictions on legal immigration. Those arriving directly from Cuba - including highjackers of boats and planes and other criminals - were treated as 'refugees' and were granted immediate entry, while Cubans arriving from third countries were treated as foreigners subject to the normal US immigration rules. The framing and manipulation of migration arrangements for such despicable motives and by such petty means led to a build-up to critical levels of the pressure to migrate, which was relieved periodically by illegal exoduses under conditions of considerable risk to the travellers and marked by recurrent migratory cycles. Many Cubans whose visa applications to visit relatives or emigrate permanently had been turned down flat by the US authorities, were welcomed with open arms, amid much publicity and politicking, when they arrived on American soil by illegal means. The aim is to deceive world opinion into believing that Cubans are 'fleeing' their country for political reasons and from a socio-economic system that has failed. Distortion and exaggeration in American propaganda about Cuban migration to the United States Cuban migration today is markedly economic different from those who left the country during the first years after the Triumph of the Revolution. This is reflected in the growing links that Cubans residing abroad maintain with the country, especially through their relatives. It is estimated that over 1 million 350 thousand Cubans born in the island are living overseas today. If their descendants are added –between 300 000 and 400 000 born to Cubans living overseas—the number totals 1 million 700 thousand approximately. Cuba does not figure among the top twenty nations of origin of migrants, but does have a substantial migrant community in the United States. Some 1.5 million Cuban nationals, émigrés or children of Cuban émigrés live abroad; of these, around 1.3 million live in the United States, comprising roughly a million born in Cuba and some 300,000 American-born children of Cuban parents. Besides changes in the composition of the Cuban migration, there has been a diversification in countries of residence where today there is a significant number of Cubans. It is estimated that there are Cubans living in 148 States worldwide, out of which 98% is clustered in 20 countries. Although the largest number resides in the United States, the relative weight of that community in the total of émigrés has decreased in the last years. Despite the detention every year in the United States of thousands of Latin Americans attempting illegal entry, it is the Cuban immigrants - very few in number compared with the rest - that almost always get pride of place in Western press reports. Out of the 35.2 million Latins or Hispanics registered in the 2000 US census, those of Mexican origin numbered 20.9 million, Puerto Rican 3.4 million, Central American nearly 2 million, South American 1.4 million and those from the Dominican Republic 0.8 million. Scant mention is made of the rest of Latin American migration and even less of the poverty, starvation, desperation, corruption and hopelessness that prompt it or the conditions of exploitation and abuse which accompany it. It is only the Cuban immigrants who receive Washington's 'political attention' and are portrayed in the captive media as 'exiles' or 'refugees' in search of a future of 'freedoms'. This despite the fact that of the 35 million-plus permanent US residents of Latin American or Hispanic origins, less than 1.3 million are of Cuban origin - just 3.5% of that population. Hypocritically ignored is the fact that Cubans emigrate, like the vast majority of emigrants from underdeveloped countries, to reunite families or for economic reasons - circumstances aggravated by the prolongation and intensification of the US blockade imposed on their nation. Washington's obsession with destabilizing the country and destroying the Revolution led in the 1960s to one of the most abhorrent episodes: Operation 'Peter Pan'. This involved tricking 14,000 Cuban children into leaving their homes and transporting them to the United States. The American secret service fabricated and extensively promulgated the story that the revolutionary government was planning to deprive parents of patria potestas as regards the education and care of their children. A criminal operation to transport to America Cuban children, who were forced to travel without their parents, was planned and executed with Washington's support. Operation Peter Pan was the most important example of the manipulation of children for political ends in the history of the western hemisphere. It was also one of the saddest episodes in the history of Cuban emigration to the United States. Many of the children were sent to children's homes, orphanages and even penal institutions for juvenile delinquents, in 35 states of the Union. The organizers of this Machiavellian plan succeeded in keeping secret its methods, means and purposes for a long time, concealing from public opinion the details of this ostensibly 'humanitarian' operation, which in reality was one of the most sinister covert operations of psychological warfare undertaken by the US secret service. Using the illegal services of Radio Swan, a channel owned by the US government, for promotion and propagandizing of the operation, on October 26, 1960, they began the fraudulent broadcasting of fragments of a bogus, never-conceived 'law of patria potestad' supposedly promulgated by the Cuban government. Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh, Parish Priest at the Sacred Heart (then within the diocese of Miami), a man closely linked to recalcitrant and aggressive elements of the local Cuban-American community, was the visible organizer of the operation. Through the Catholic Welfare Bureau, Father Walsh assembled a staff of helpers and employees whose functions were to visa the young victims of this cruel stratagem, receive them at the airport and distribute them among the various centres set up for the purpose in Florida and elsewhere. In an unprecedented move, the US State Department delegated to a religious authority the power to issue waiver visas, to all Cuban children aged between six and sixteen. The first five children who travelled by virtue of Operation Peter Pan arrived in Miami at 4.30 p.m. on December 26, 1960, from Pan American Flight No.422. The experience was a painful one for these children, many still very young; they were obliged to leave their country and their family, to live in many cases in worse conditions. Hundreds of cases of their abuse by the guardians and teachers assigned to them were reported. The testimony of many, now adults, clearly reflect their feelings of loneliness and isolation. Many began to believe that their parents did not love them. The situation for all of them deteriorated after the 1962 Missile Crisis; Washington closed the door to immigration in a move designed to step up the pressure on Cuba. More than half the children smuggled out of the country, via Operation Peter Pan, suffered long years of separation. In some cases, reunion proved simply impossible. Theft of doctors and professionals during the 1960s In the years following Cuba's revolutionary victory, the US authorities, as if it were a matter of course, took steps to strip the nation of its doctors, nurses, secondary and primary teachers and other graduate and technical professionals, with the aim of paralyzing the Cuban economy and the nation's basic public services. It promised these people American salaries commensurate with their qualifications - vastly above those prevailing in a recently-independent neo-colony, poor, underdeveloped and severely blockaded. Of the 6,000 doctors in Cuba in 1959, 3,000 migrated to the United States. The Cuban Adjustment Act One of the clearest expressions of the criminal, immoral and discriminatory immigration policy pursued by the US administration towards Cuba is the 'Cuban Adjustment Act', a judicial monstrosity introduced in 1966. Its calculated aim is to incite illegal emigration from Cuba to the United States. One of a kind in the world, this law offers Cubans who arrive by illegal and otherwise irregular means, privileges not granted to citizens of any other nationality or country. The “preferential” treatment accorded to Cuban citizens, to date distinguishing them from all other foreign immigrants, acquired legal status on November 2, 1966, when President Johnson signed the Cuban Adjustment Act. This provides that "any alien who is a native or citizen of Cuba and who has been inspected and admitted or paroled into the United States subsequent to 1 January 1959 and has been physically present in the United States for at least one year, may be adjusted by the Attorney General at his/her discretion and under such regulations as s/he may prescribe for an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residency." The Act thus establishes that any Cuban who arrives in America, regardless of the means employed, and lives there for two years (later reduced to the present term of one year) may apply to the Attorney General (in practice, the immigration service - INS) for permanent US residence. Under this pernicious legal outrage, unlike immigrants from other nations any Cuban who gets to America by whatever means - especially illegal - receives immediate benefits that include official recognition of his or her presence in the country, help with finding a job and access to various social services. In addition, there is the opportunity to secure legal residence almost automatically after the first year. This capacity, bestowed on the Attorney General and applied by local immigration authorities, has been used from the outset to allow admittance to every Cuban, with or without a criminal record, who gets to America, and to grant immunity from prosecution to the authors of serious crimes, often committed with the aim of reaching US territory. Pursuant to this legislation, the US authorities systematically manipulate refugee status, granting it automatically to every Cuban who arrives on American soil. The newcomers are treated prima facie as refugees if their reasons for emigrating are entirely economic. Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, the new Cuban immigrant is granted a work permit immediately and automatically, gets legal residence without the need for an Affidavit of Support, obtains a social security number, food and lodging welfare benefits, and adjusts his or her migratory status without the need to return to his or her country of origin to receive the relevant confirmation (as is the case with applicants from other nations), and without the need for lawyers or to incur costs in the process of obtaining permanent residence. Washington did not confine itself to granting these privileges to Cubans after their arrival in US territory; it incited illegal departures from Cuba by extensive propaganda about the 'benefits' that Cubans attempting illegal emigration to the United States would receive. Their own, official radio and TV services, whose anti-Cuba programming is financed and controlled by the federal authorities, have encouraged illegal emigration from Cuba. They have portrayed brutal, murdering hijackers of boats and aircraft as heroes and conceal the real dangers threatening those who set sail for America in fragile craft. The opportunistic and criminal implementation of the Cuban Adjustment Act was among the factors that led to the 'rafters’ crisis' of August 1994, when over 30,000 Cubans migrated illegally to the United States. Other influences included: the lack of effective measures to curb illegal emigration and eliminate human smuggling; the US authorities' incitement of and impunity accorded to armed hijackers of vessels and aircraft; minimal compliance with the 1984 bilateral migration accord; and the severe effects of the tightening of the genocidal blockade imposed on Cuba. The latter measures coincided with the abrupt termination of Cuba's economic relations with the now-defunct socialist camp. In the same year, new migration accords were reached between Cuba and the United States. However, the constant incentive to illegal departure remains, for those wishing to emigrate to America but unable to do so by legal means, given the continued application of the Cuban Adjustment Law and the "wet foot-dry foot" policy -whose effect is that those who reach US territory are not sent back - coupled with the dire economic conditions caused by the blockade. The instability and fragility of the craft used for the sea crossings and the risks associated with migrant-trafficking operations by sea out of Florida have led to the deaths of hundreds of people and threaten the lives of many more in the future. The United States will not be able to establish control and discipline on its own coasts while the Cuban Adjustment Act, or anything like it, remains on the statute book, and while it goes on financing and refining radio and TV programs aimed at Cuba and constantly inciting people to leave illegally, as part of a political and psychological war on Cuba. The criminal policy of manipulating the arrangements on migration and of encouraging illegal emigration from the country was the cause of the appalling case of the loss at sea of the mother of Elián González and the boy's subsequent kidnapping in Miami. The United States bears the entire responsibility for the large number of deaths over more than three decades, some of children, and of the continuing risk to the lives of those incited to embark on such adventures by a murderous policy totally lacking in ethics or humanity. Migration crises and bilateral accords The inconsistent and arbitrary policies on migration applied to Cuba's detriment by successive US administrations have caused three major migration crises since 1965: at Camarioca in that year, at Mariel in 1980 and the 'rafters crisis' of 1994. The migration crisis generated in 1980 led to various meetings between Cuba and the United States. These resulted in an agreement for normalization of migration arrangements, which included a Joint Communiqué and Implementation Minutes, signed on December 12, 1984. Under the agreement, Cuba accepted the return of 2,746 persons classified by the US authorities as "excludables", while the American side undertook to accept an annual inflow of up to 20,000 prospective legal Cuban immigrants. Of the 160,000 visas that should have been issued during the eight years in which the agreement was effective, only 11,222, or 7% of the total envisaged, were granted. The United States defaulted also on its obligation under the accord to forestall hazardous trips from Cuba that put human lives at risk. On the contrary, the US authorities went on encouraging illegal emigration by continuing the practice of granting provisional entry to any Cuban that managed to reach American territory by irregular means. New bilateral accords on migration were reached in the wake of the 1994 "rafters crisis". This time, the United States undertook “discontinue its practice of granting paroles to all Cuban migrants who reached US territory in irregular ways.” Implementation of the agreements on migration was reviewed at thirteen rounds of migration talks between September 1, 1994 and a point in 2003 when the US authorities unilaterally decided to suspend the dialogue. Cuba drew attention at these meetings to persistent irregularities in US compliance with the accords, offending both their letter and spirit. The US authorities have continued to apply the "wet foot-dry foot" policy. By virtue of this illegal practice, which runs counter to the letter of the accords mentioned, Cuban migrants who succeed in reaching US territory are granted entry regardless of the means used or acts committed in the attempt. Similarly, the requirement to send back all migrants intercepted at sea has not always been respected. Since the signing of the joint declaration on May 2, 1995, the American authorities have repatriated over 5,000 illegal Cuban immigrants, including those intercepted at sea by the coastguard service and those illegally entering the US Naval base at Guantánamo (who are sent back from this enclave via the checkpoint on land). Those returning are given a medical examination and are returned to their families, except for fugitives from justice and those with proceedings pending before the courts in relation to some other crime. Cuba has complied strictly with this undertaking and has taken every possible step to facilitate the reinstatement of such persons in Cuban society. Cuba has often reiterated, at the official meetings in Havana and Washington and in the course of the rounds of talks on migration, its outright rejection of the policy of selectivity in determining the repatriation of illegal migrants. If the US immigration authorities really intended to send these people back - having granted them entry under the pretext of needing medical attention - they could be admitted on a 'provisional parole' basis, which would facilitate any subsequent repatriation. Nonetheless, to date there does not seem to have been a single case of this type where the person concerned has been repatriated, nor have any answers been forthcoming to inquiries and concerns regarding this irregularity. The US failed to return 420 illegal migrants –– 14.2% of the total –– interdicted by the US Coastguard service in 2005. This is a blatant violation of the May 1995 Migratory Agreement and reveals an increase as compared to 2004, when the US authorities failed to return 139 illegal emigrants, accounting for 9.3% of the total. The practice of not repatriating Cuban emigrants rescued at sea by the US coastguard and transferring them to the naval base in territory at Guantánamo illegally occupied by the United States, amounts to encouragement of further illegal sailings. In some cases, after a more detailed check, the travellers are repatriated on land, but in several others they have never been sent back and await acceptance by the US authorities as refugees, or to be sent to a third country. The allegations by these people that they were being persecuted by the Cuban authorities for political, religious or similar reasons are entirely false, divorced from the real situation and amount to hackneyed pretexts for legitimizing an otherwise clearly illegal and arbitrary proceeding. An activity that has flourished in response to incitement to illegal emigration is trafficking in or smuggling of illegal emigrants, increasingly and criminally taking advantage of the situation created by the "wet foot-dry foot" policy. The feeble response and negligent practices of the US authorities as regards smuggling of Cuban migrants, originated and organized on American soil, facilitates the criminal activities of individuals who profit from these hazardous offences, in clear contravention of international law, the laws of the United States itself and of its migration accords with Cuba. The provisions on trafficking in migrants in these documents reaffirmed support for the resolution of the UN General Assembly in this connection and formalized a commitment by Cuba and the United States to cooperate in taking appropriate and effective action to prevent the illegal transportation of persons to the latter nation. Cuba's unwavering will and commitment to promote legal and orderly migration. Its commitment to combating illegal trafficking in persons On countless occasions, Cuba has provided clear evidence of its unchanging, solemn commitment to the bilateral migration accords, to combating illegal migration, and to suppressing trafficking in migrants. Cuba put a stop to the diversion of aircraft from the United States to Cuba by imposing severe penalties on the authors of these crimes. It increased the penalties also for trafficking in migrants and can impose sentences of life imprisonment for human smuggling. Since 2000, the Cuban government has reiterated many times its call for a bilateral accord to combat illegal migration and human smuggling; the Americans have not even agreed to discuss these proposals. The Cuban authorities have forestalled dozens of plans and violent attempts to hijack vessels and aircraft, and have thwarted a large number of human-smuggling operations, mostly coordinated by traffickers based in the United States. The migration accords of September 9, 1994, subsequently complemented by measures adopted as part of their implementation and embodied in the joint declaration of May 2, 1995, have been fully honoured and complied with by the Cuban authorities. Cuba has taken exemplary and effective measures against the traffickers, without support of any kind from the United States. We have arrested some 70 of these criminals; it is paradoxical that the US authorities have been unable to follow suit, despite the public availability of information on the modus operandi and movements of these people. Cuba has offered to send those it arrests for trafficking for trial in the United States, so that all those involved in the relevant operations can be investigated and dealt with accordingly. Our offer has been rejected. Cuba has taken various steps, including the introduction of stiffer penalties, to combat the traffic in illegal migrants. The relevant measures include Article 348 of the Penal Code, which imposes life imprisonment for human smuggling when involving violence and threat to or loss of human life. A decree law has been passed which authorizes the seizure of vessels owned by those involved in trafficking in migrants, so as to facilitate strict control over private and public-service vessels and the materials used in committing such crimes. Arrangements for surveillance by the relevant authorities have been tightened. Cuban families: victims of and hostages to the Bush administration's imperialist designs. The measures announced on May 6, 2004 and their impact on personal relations and mutual help within Cuban families One of the acts of Washington's escalating aggression towards Cuba was an announcement on January 5, 2004, cancelling (on the basis of spurious pretexts) the bilateral talks on migration, just three days before the scheduled start of a regular round of these. The bilateral migration accords have enabled some 200,000 Cubans to emigrate to the United States over the last ten years, legally, safely and on an orderly basis. On May 6, 2004, the US administration announced new measures designed to intensify even further its aggressive policy of hostility towards Cuba. In a report to President Bush by the 'Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba', co-chaired by the then Secretary of State Colin Powell, measures were included that directly infringed the rights of migrants and Cuban families, for application as from July 2004. Among these were a reduction in the frequency of visits to Cuba by US-resident Cubans from one per year to one every three years, and limitation of these to immediate family - restrictively defined for the purpose as grandparents, grandchildren, parents, siblings, wives and children - and without allowing exceptions in cases of illness or bereavement. It was also established on a retrospective basis that Cubans who have arrived there recently or have visited Cuba in the last few years must wait three years (from their arrival or last visit, as the case may be) before they can visit again. On June 22, 2004, the US Department of Trade announced additional restrictions on the sending of parcels to Cuba. Basic personal necessities such as clothes and toiletries, among other things, were banned. These measures will clearly have a direct impact on the recipient families. The new measures deny many Cuban émigrés - those not belonging to the classes of relative approved by President Bush - the possibility of visiting their home country. It is very difficult to estimate the total of remittances from Cuban expatriates in the United States, but it must run to hundreds of millions of dollars. Many Cuban families are set to suffer in their daily lives sudden and arbitrary deprivation of this aid within the family circle. Also, a reduction in Cuba's hard currency receipts will affect the level of resources available for welfare programs designed to benefit children, the elderly, the disabled and those sections of society most in need of protection, among others. While Washington has made relations between US-resident Cubans and their country of origin increasingly difficult, since 1978 and notably in 1994 the Cuban government has continued to implement a continuous, irreversible process of normalizing and making more flexible its relations with Cuban émigrés who do not participate in the aggression perpetrated on their home country by the US administration. These efforts have been made despite an escalation of US hostility and an upturn in terrorist and similar actions against the Cuban people. In 1994, 37,000 Cubans resident abroad visited their country of origin. Since 2000, the bull of visits to Cuba of Cubans living abroad had steadily increased and in 2003, it amounted to 167,710, including 115,142 who travelled directly from the United States. Bush Government’s measures against the Cuban family were enacted in the second half of 2004 and had a very negative impact. The visits of Cubans residents abroad dropped to 125 thousand 084; 57 thousand 145 from the United States (a 50.9% decrease as compared to 2003) In 2005, there was a slight recovery and by the end of that year Cubans travelling to the country totalled 146 thousand 451 -61 thousand 920 directly from the United States–. Nevertheless, the Bush administration’s measures against the Cuban family keep on having a negative impact. The right of the Cubans living in the United States to meet with their families has been further thwarted. The anti-Cuba policy of the US administration has also had an effect on the Americans’ rights. In 2004, 48 thousand 591 US citizens visited Cuba, while during 2005 there were only 35 thousand visits, equivalent to a 28% reduction. In 2000, 38,000 Cubans visited relatives in America. Last year, the total was less than 7,000, depressed by the arbitrary restrictions imposed by the US authorities on the granting of visas. In August 1994, Cuba abolished the requirement for an entry visa for temporary residents abroad, who now total 50,000. These are Cubans living abroad on a temporary basis who have kept their Cuban permanent residence. Last year, 34,000 visited Cuba. From 1995 onwards, a system of 'Journey Extensions' was operated. It was used last year by over 20,000 Cuban expatriates to visit Cuba, and for 10 years has constituted a mechanism for entry without the need for pre-arrival visa formalities. As from June 1, 2003, Cubans resident abroad no longer need official permission to enter Cuba. In another effort by the Cuban Government to normalize its relations with the migration, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Pérez Roque announced, at a meeting in New York, held in 2003 with US Cuban residents, the abolishment of the Entry Permit to Cuba for Cuban residents overseas and the implementation of a new procedure known as the Passport Implementation. This measure was enacted as from June 1st 2004 and by the end of 2005, more than 162 thousand Cubans living abroad had their passports in operation, which allows them to visit their birth country as they wish. As a result of the adoption by of the National Assembly of the People's Power in 1995 of the Law on Foreign Investment, in the last two years alone Cuba has processed 72 proposals for business or investment by Cubans resident in 12 countries. Out of the seven companies operating charter flights to Cuba from the United States, six are owned by Cubans. Over 100 travel agencies, also owned by Cubans, are engaged in organizing trips to Cuba from America, the country of residence of more than 70% of all Cuban émigrés. At the Third 'Nation and Emigration' Conference, new measures were announced to facilitate the provision of services for and relations with Cubans resident abroad. These are: • The setting up of a new office, initially under the aegis of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to serve Cubans resident abroad, with wider functions and powers than those currently exercised by the Ministry's Division of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad. • The awarding of university grants to the children of Cuban émigrés. In 1994, it was agreed that young foreign-resident Cubans could follow postgraduate courses in Cuba. In 1995, the scheme was extended to first-degree courses but on a fee-paying basis. In 2004, the Cuban government decided to award grants in all such cases, so that the children of Cuban émigrés could attend university here without charge, on the same basis as the young people living in Cuba. • The setting up of Spanish language and Cuban history and culture summer-school courses designed specifically for the descendants of Cubans resident in other countries. These are intended mainly for young people born abroad of Cuban parents, for whom the search for family roots, language, culture and homeland history are a priority. • The adoption of new measures to speed up customs procedures and make these more secure. The changes include a system of charging luggage by weight, aimed at solving a problem that is currently one of the most frequent causes of inconvenience and complaint. The following are key aspects to borne in mind when considering the issue of Cuba's position on migration: • There are no substantial problems between the Cuban state and its expatriates abroad. The process of normalization did not end with the measures described above: it is continuous, irreversible and permanent. Fundamentally, the decisions taken over the last ten years have paved the way for a gradual normalization of 'Nation-Emigration' relations. There is no truth in the claim that the constant aggression of the US government in collusion with a corrupt, ambitious and anti-patriotic clique of US-resident Cubans is "a problem between Cubans". • The real problem both for Cubans at home and all those who love Cuba (regardless of where they live) and want to see it free and independent, is the attempt by the Bush administration, legacy of an imperialist obsession with dominion over Cuba dating back two centuries, to deny the Cuban people its right to self-determination; to deny it the right, recognized by the UN Charter, to be an independent country and choose, without outside interference, its own model of economic, political and social development, draw up its own laws and found its own institutions. That and that alone, is now the real problem. • The economic blockade and the policy of aggression towards Cuba are now the main obstacle to full normalization of relations between Cuban émigrés and their homeland. That applies not just to the Cubans resident in the United States, but to Cubans living abroad in general, since while the blockade affects primarily their families in Cuba, it also curtails rights of the Cubans resident in the United States and elsewhere. This must be fully understood when considering the affirmation that the priority now for all who regard themselves as Cuban is to oppose this major obstacle to ongoing efforts to diversify and normalize the relations and exchanges between that community and the homeland. • Cuba understands and respects the fact that differing political ideas about Cuba's present and future coexist in the Cuban community abroad, as well as differing ideological conceptions and religious beliefs. • Eventually, the blockade and hostility will end; this is no pipe dream but a perfectly realistic possibility. When the sanctions and hostility are things of the past, along with Washington's plans of a 'transition' for Cuba and for US annexation of the island, Cubans will be able to travel legally between the two countries without restriction of any kind, except for the few whose ill-conceived activities damaged their homeland make them unworthy of the privilege. As of now, those wishing to retire to Cuba and have sufficient means for the purpose may do so. • We see the right to call oneself Cuban as dependent, beyond place of birth, on whether one identifies with the Platt Amendment, the Helms-Burton Act and the report of President Bush's 'Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba'; or whether one believes in the alternative proposed by our national hero, José Martí: a republic "of all, for the wellbeing of all". The Bush administration: • hinders the establishing of a safe, orderly and legal migration flow • infringes the rights of its citizens by raising more obstacles to their freedom of travel and • prevents international cooperation and educational, cultural and academic exchanges between the Cuban and American peoples. On January 5, 2004, the US Interests Section in Havana and the US State Department notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cuban Interests Section in Washington that they did not envisage holding a further round of talks on migration ““until the Cuban authorities showed a real interest in seriously addressing ‘very important’ aspects for the attainment of an orderly, legal and safe migration flow between both countries.” The expression “seriously addressing" is tantamount in the imperial jargon of US officialdom to Cuba making every conceivable unilateral concession and complying with every demand and whim of the American authorities. This move by Washington is an attempt to distract attention from its infractions of the migration accords, including: cutting back on visas for Cuban citizens who want to visit relatives in the United States; failing to repatriate a number of the illegal Cuban migrants intercepted on the high seas; inciting to illegal emigration and to the perpetration of acts of violence to that end, via radio broadcasts from US territory; and not taking decisive action against traffickers in illegal emigrants and their accomplices. Their excuses for cancelling the round of migration talks are fictitious and absurd. They reveal that the true meaning of this step has more to do with Miami politicking than with America's real interests in terms of national security and migration. Washington is trying to manipulate reality and conceal the fact that the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act and the irrational "wet foot-dry foot" policy are the real obstacles to normalizing migration between the two nations; they amount to incitement to illegal immigration and represent the most serious infraction of the migration accords. The US Treasury Department has announced extension of the application of penalties incurred by American citizens who visit Cuba without a permit or otherwise break the rules. The basic aim is to intimidate potential US visitors who increasingly evade the restrictions and ignore the Treasury's threats. Significantly, before this latest announcement, there was no published scale of fines for these offences. The main additions and amendments to this anti-Cuba measure are summarized below: 1. Tourism-related transactions / fines: First trip: $7,500 2. Business-related transactions: First trip: $15,000 3. Unlicensed trips to visit close relations: First trip: Warning letter 4. Each additional trip: Before receipt of warning: $1,000 5. Trips without a specific license Trips whose purpose falls within the classes of activity for which licenses may be issued: 6. Exports (or attempted export) without authorization involving a Cuban interests (including that of any Cuban national). The fine shall equate to the value of the unauthorized funds to be exported. Further penalties may be incurred in the event of another infraction after incurring the fine. 7. Unauthorized use of credit cards in Cuba: First trip $1,000 8. Importation of products of Cuban origin related to infractions of the travel restrictions Where the total value involved is $500 or less: $250 B. Services clause: travel, freight and money-transfer services by persons other than authorized 'Service Providers' 1. Remittance services Prior to receipt of Treasury notification: $2,000 2. Travel services: Prior to receipt of Treasury notification: $2,000 plus $500 per customer served 3. Freight services Prior to receipt of Treasury notification: $5,000 plus $500 per customer served. The new restrictions on US citizens and US-resident Cubans as regards sending parcels or remittances or travelling to Cuba, which do not apply to any other immigrant group in America, are a further instance of the way Washington undermines basic human rights that are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights itself, as well as in both the relevant international pacts. In accordance to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, these measures are in flagrant violation of Article 12, which defines the bases of freedom to travel, including the right thereto of any citizen whose status within any nation is duly legalized. This principle was reaffirmed by the UN General Assembly in December 2004, by passing Resolution 597/203 'Respect for the right to universal freedom of travel and the vital importance of family reunification' – In January 2005 during her confirmation hearing as Secretary of State before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Condoleezza Rice ascertained that she would be paying close attention to the implementation of the recommendations of the “Commission for the Assistance to a Free Cuba” and reiterated that the “ban on US citizens’ travels to Cuba stems form the need to cut the benefits these activities generate for the Cuban regime”. – That same month, OFAC reinterpreted the standing regulations on the travels to Cuba, to stop US citizens from attending meetings in Cuba, sponsored by UN agencies seated in US territory unless they were issued a specific license for that purpose. – In March 2005, new OFAC regulations entered into force to issue licenses to US organizations travelling to Cuba for religious purposes: groups exceeding 25 persons would be allowed just a trip every three months and these licenses would be valid only for a year. It is OFAC’s power to issue licenses for larger groups seeking longer visit on a case-by-case analysis”. The US government is also defaulting on commitments publicly undertaken by its president at the G8 summit at Sea Island, Georgia (USA) following a debate on poverty. The heads of state of the world's most industrialized and richest nations, the United States among them, agreed that the sending of remittances to relatives in émigrés' countries of origin potentially alleviated poverty. As announced by Jim Wilkinson, Deputy National Security Advisor for Communications, the Group undertook to facilitate remittances to poor countries and halve the cost of the relevant transactions. The new measures introduced by Washington are also illegal: in 2000, the US Congress passed a law that codified all the regulations concerned with restrictions on travel to Cuba and the exceptions to these, depriving the President of the authority to change the rules, since that is the sole prerogative of the legislature that originated them as law. In 2003, there were majorities in both houses in favor of an initiative to deregulate travel to Cuba. However, in an anti-democratic move, the relevant text was deleted from the bill following a threat of veto by President Bush. Meantime, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a form to be completed by all travellers which constitutes another flagrant invasion of the citizen's privacy: one of the details required is the identity card number of the relative to be visited. Indefinite suspension by the US authorities of the rounds of bilateral migration talks and the new restrictions now in force are designed to add to the difficulties hindering the Cuban people's development, as well as to encourage further migration and engineer incidents to justify cancelling the bilateral migration accords. Coupled with the tightening of the criminal economic, trade and financial embargo imposed by Washington on the Cuban people, the ultimate aim is to generate an artificial emigration crisis as a pretext for military action against Cuba. Under the Helms-Burton Act, since 1996 Washington has been obliged to respond to a further emigration crisis as if it were an act of war against the United States. In this context, in 2003 it hypocritically announced via official channels, that the hijackings of Cuban vessels and aircraft - encouraged by various aspects of Washington's anti-Cuba policy - represented “a serious threat to the national security of the United States". They went so far as to state publicly, in a threatening tone, that they would not tolerate mass exoduses from Cuba. The measures in place since July 2004 are opposed by the majority of Cuban émigrés and their organizations in the United States. A survey conducted by Miami television's Channel 23 at around the time these were introduced revealed that 65-68% of Cuban expatriates objected to them. Other surveys, including one by the Univision TV channel put the figure at 75%; all the polls found levels of opposition of over 60%. On May 20, 2004, a Cuban-American Family Rights Commission was established in Miami, despite the climate of intolerance and violence which pervades that city. On June 21, this coalition of groups opposed to the blockade on Cuba began collecting signatures on a document for sending to the US government as a signal of discontent. The previous day, Cuban émigrés organized two convoys of cars in Miami, with hundreds of members of the Cuban community, as a protest demonstration. With fascist overtones, annexationists and protectors of terrorists Lincoln Díaz Balart and Ninoska Pérez Castellón, respectively Republican congressman and aide to the late leader of the mafia with Cuban roots Jorge Más Canosa, issued threats against the US-resident Cubans demonstrating against the anti-Cuba measures of May 6, to the effect that they could lose their right to residence under the Cuban Adjustment Act. The draconian measures adopted towards the Cuban people have been criticized also by important elements of the American media and professional and business organizations, including: the daily newspaper The New York Times - which described them as outrageous; the National Lawyers Guild (NLG); the National Council of Churches (NCC); the ATRIP-USA/Engage Alliance formed by the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) -; the Association of Travel-Related Industry Professionals (ATRIP); Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC) - an academic program that enrolls students from 115 US universities on courses in Cuba; the Coalition of Americans for Humanitarian Trade With Cuba; the United States Council for International Business; the Emergency Committee for American Trade (ECAT); and Inter-American Dialogue - a forum for analysis and formulation of alternative foreign policies for Latin America. As an expression of the prevailing sentiments within American society, on September 22, 2004, the House of Representatives voted 225 in favor, 174 against a bipartisan amendment to remove the recently-imposed restrictions on travel to Cuba by Cuban émigrés and reinstate their right to annual visits. During 2005 the US Congress addressed this issue as well. Following some examples: • In April, Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY) introduced the bill S.894 “Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2005”, to establish that the President should not regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly, travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or legal residents, or any of the transactions pertaining to such travels. Likewise, Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ) introduced the bill H.R 1814 “Export Freedom to Cuba Act of 2005”, to lift restrictions on travels to Cuba, whose text matched Senator Enzi’s S.894. • The “Action Day on Cuba” was held in April in order to promote the lifting of travel bans. Among the 600 to 800 participants, the event –aimed at promoting- change of policy, were NGOs representatives, businesspeople and Cuban-Americans from 35 states. • In May, Representative Jim Davis (D-FL) introduced bill H.R.2617 “To bar certain additional restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba”, with the objective of abolishing July 16 2004 restriction on Cuban-Americans’ travels to Cuba and the sending of remittances to relatives. • In June at the House, several amendments on Cuba were added to draft H.R. 3058 “Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2006”, namely: o Charles Rangel’s (D-NY) “Amendment sought to prohibit the use of funds made available in the Act from being used to implement, administer, or enforce the economic embargo of Cuba.” o Barbara Lee’s (D-CA) “Amendment sought to prohibit the use of funds in the bill to enforce restrictions on travel to Cuba for educational purposes.” o Jeff Flake’s (R-AZ) “Amendment to prohibit use of funds in the bill to enforce regulations preventing travel to Cuba for religious reasons.” o Jim Davis’ (D-FL) “Amendment sought to prohibit funds in the bill from being used to enforce certain regulations restricting family travel to Cuba.” o Jeff Flake’s (R-AZ) “An amendment to prohibit use of funds in the bill to enforce regulations preventing travel to Cuba by members of the United States Armed Forces.” These amendments were defeated at a vote or withdrawn because of objections on procedural grounds. However, the sole fact that they were introduced further confirmed the opposition within US Congress to the new additional restrictions enforced by Bush’s Administration as part of its blockade policies. • In July, Representative Jose Serrano (D-NY) introduced in the House the draft bill H.C.Res.206 under the title: “Expressing the sense of the Congress that the President should temporarily suspend restrictions on remittances, gift parcels, and family travel to Cuba to allow Cuban-Americans to assist their relatives in Cuba in the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis.” • In 2005, 487 American nationals were penalized for defying the blockade, particularly, the travel bans. They were charged with total fines of 529 thousand 743 USD. The last die-hard advocates of these criminal measures are former members of the forces of repression deployed by the ruthless Cuban ex-dictator Fulgencio Batista, as well as the former politicos who profited from the blood and sweat of ordinary Cubans, and the representatives of an unpatriotic bourgeoisie which feathered its nest under the pre-1959 neocolonial regime. The policy is also supported by the Miami-based terrorists and mercenaries who have inflicted so much misery, destruction and death on Cuba's families. Cuba reaffirms its readiness to continue working towards full normalization of its relations with expatriate Cubans and repeats its undertaking to go on promoting legal and orderly migration by its citizens and everyone who visits or lives in our country. Cuba will maintain its campaign against human smuggling, severely punishing the authors of these criminal activities. Moreover, Cuba will continue to strictly comply with bilateral migration accords, including those entered into with the United States. Cuba is committed to improving its relations with the United States on questions of migration. While this aim remains frustrated, the Cuban government will fulfil its commitment and duty to condemn the Bush administration's ongoing acts of hostility and manipulation of the migration arrangements between our two nations.
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