CubaMinrex. Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Press Conference by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, Felipe Pérez Roque, with the national and foreign media, on the III Conference “The Nation and Emigration”. 18 May 2004

José Luis Ponce (Moderator).- Welcome to the press conference by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, comrade Felipe Pérez Roque, on the III Conference “The Nation and Emigration.”

Minister, there are 89 reporters from 80 bureaus of 20 countries, including 13 Cuban journalists from 12 national bureaus – and the rest, 76 foreign journalists from 68 bureaus of 19 countries.

Felipe Pérez.- Good morning, we thank you for your presence. We have asked you to come to provide you with information on the III Conference “The Nation and Emigration.”

The III Conference “The Nation and Emigration” is going to take place in Havana on 21-23 May.

Despite the situation created by the new and brutal measures adopted by the US Government against the Cuban population and against the rights of the Cubans who live in the United States, the Cuban Government has maintained its steadfast will to hold this event.

We hope that the Conference will become a space of respectful and serious dialogue; an indication of our will to maintain increasingly fluent and normal relations with the Cubans who live overseas.

We are also certain that it will be an indication of the will of the Cubans who will attend the Conference as delegates to face that respectful dialogue, thinking of Cuba, first and foremost, and of its people – and we see that this Conference is already the result of a whole process.

That is, this Conference will be held not only after the founding dialogue of 1978, but also after the I Conference “The Nation and Emigration” in 1994, the II Conference in 1995 and other events, cultural activities and meetings that throughout this decade have turned the presence of sectors of the Cuban community abroad into something fluent, systematic and not newsworthy.

It is estimated that outside Cuba there are roughly a million and a half Cuban nationals, who were born in Cuba and migrated or who are children of Cuban immigrants – a million and a half. Of those, approximately 1,300,000 live in the United States.

Of that 1,300,000 living in the US, nearly a million stated, at the last census made in the United States, that they had been born in Cuba and had migrated later – and nearly 300,000 said that they had already been born in the US, born to Cuban parents; that is, we are talking about a population of a million and a half inhabitants scattered around the world in over 100 countries, but whose main community is in the United States – 1,300,000 in the US, of which almost a million migrated and some 300,000 were already born there to Cuban parents.

Cuba is not on the list of the 20 major immigrant senders, but it has an important community living abroad, particularly in the US, the country whose Government has engaged in a policy of hostility and aggression for more than four decades against ours and whose Government has just proclaimed its will to bring about “a change in regime” in our country, as they have called it.

We hope that the Conference will be attended by over 200 delegates from more than 40 countries where there are Cubans living overseas.

There are delegates to the Conference arriving on an ongoing basis; we will not know the final numbers until the event itself begins, but we think that over 200 delegates will be present, of which there are more than 140 already in Cuba.

The Conference will provide an open space for dialogue; the debate among authorities of the Cuban Government, representatives of the Cuban society and the delegates who represent the community living abroad.

As part of the panels for discussion and debate, there will be one devoted to talking about the blockade against Cuba and the new measures adopted by the Bush Administration, which further tighten, to an unthinkable degree, the actions against Cuba, against the Cuban population, against the right to travel, against the right to hold relations with their families.

Secondly, there will be a panel on migration issues, to hear viewpoints, exchange information with the delegates on migration matters of interest to them, the Cuban regulations, what has been done in these 10 years.

Thirdly, there will be a panel devoted to Cuba’s cultural policy, the cultural exchange of the Cubans residing abroad with our country, their involvement in the dissemination and promotion of Cuban culture. This panel will be chaired by the Minister of Culture, comrade Abel Prieto.

And there will be a fourth panel devoted to the issue of investments and businesses in Cuba. As you may recall, the Foreign Investment Act in our country did not discriminate against the Cubans living overseas; it recognized their right to participate in business, trade and investments in our country – and, in this decade, despite the brutal persecutions of the blockade, despite the enormous pressure, some nascent initiatives by Cubans living abroad have taken place in the field of investments, trade and business in our country.

These will be the four discussion panels.

There will also be other spaces for discussion, dialogue and our interest in hearing the perception of the delegates to the Conference, to provide them with information, in an atmosphere of respect, cordiality and agreement, in the crucial moment that the Homeland is going through and with the need for all its sons and daughters to stand ready to defend it.

It is important to underscore than 10 years after the first Conference was held in 1994, despite the remarkable efforts made, despite having overcome the serious obstacles to its economy stemming from the situation that the country was engulfed in at the beginning of the nineties as a result of the toughening of the blockade, 10 years after that, despite all those efforts, the country realizes that the obstacles ahead of it are greater, that the measures adopted by President Bush make life even harder for the Cubans, for the development of their country, for the development of the economy, for the possibilities of ensuring all rights for all its sons and daughters.

However, we receive the delegates with a spirit of optimism and poised firmness; we receive them with the certainty that our people will not be defeated; we receive them with the certainty that our resilience in Cuba and our defense of the right of our country to be free and independent is the resilience and the battle not only in favor of the rights of the Cubans who live in our country, but also of those who live anywhere on the planet and want their homeland free, fair and independent.

Therefore, they are not received here with a sense of gloominess, bewilderment and stupor of a defeated people; they are received by an upright people that has the profound conviction that there will be no blockade or aggression in the world that will cause it to relinquish its dreams of justice and freedom.

However, there is a contrast here. While all these years the Cuban Government, amid this difficult situation, has been adopting measures on an ongoing basis to favor the exchange of the Cubans living abroad with those living in Cuba, the US Government has rendered that relation increasingly difficult. I think that it has been made clear recently:

Who opposes family exchanges? The Government of the United States.

Who adopts measures to prevent the Cubans from being able to come and visit their relatives? The Government of the United States.

Who promotes measures to prevent the Cubans living abroad from receiving – particularly, the Cubans living in the US – the visits by their Cuban relatives? It is the Government of the United States which does not allow the Cubans who live in Cuba to visit their families in the US.

Who opposes the sending of remittances to the families in Cuba of the Cubans who live in the United States? The Government of the United States.

Who proclaims that from now on an elderly aunt or a cousin is not part of the family? The Government of the United States. And, by the way, that is very curious – because I remember those who defended the idea that Elián’s great-uncle was his next of kin and, that, therefore, he was entitled to keep the child’s custody and that those distant relatives in Miami were his next of kin, when they schemed to kidnap the child, to take him away from his father – and they used to say that the great-uncle was as entitled as the father, and even more entitled.

I wonder now – and the US Government and Secretary of State Colin Powell should explain this – why in order to kidnap Elián the great-uncles were indeed next of kin and now for these measures, however, the aunts and the cousins are no longer part of the family.

I guess that falsity has been unveiled, as well as the double standards with which the US deals with and manipulates the issue of family rights and relations among families.

I would also like to assert that Cuba believes that the main obstacle existing today to normal relations with the Cuban immigrants and the Cubans living abroad is the blockade and the aggressive policy of the US Government – and that such policy not only violates and affects the rights of the Cubans living in the US and those living in our country, but it also harms and hinders the links of the Cubans living anywhere in the world, who on many occasions have to pay the price of our defensive measures against the pressure and the manipulation of the migratory issue.

It is the Government of the US the one that has used the migratory issue as a weapon against the Cuban Revolution. It is the Government of the US the one that has historically manipulated the migratory issue.

It is the Government of the US the one that put together Operation Peter Pan, in which 14,000 Cuban minors were taken to the US, with the ensuing social and human drama of such episode.

It is the Government of the US the one that keeps in force the Cuban Adjustment Act and the dry feet-wet feet policy; it is the one that encourages illegal migration.

The Government of the US is responsible for the Cubans who die trying to migrate illegally, on many occasions after being rejected when they attempted to do so legally.

It is the Government of the US the one that prevents the Cubans from visiting their relatives in the United States.

It is the Government of the US the one that maintains the manipulation and the encouragement to illegal migration, the one that has turned such issue into a campaign against Cuba – that has led the US to say that if a Mexican arrives in the US they are migrating; if a Cuban arrives in the US they are “fleeing.” A person from Central America living in Miami is an immigrant; a Cuban is a “refugee,” an “exile.” All of that has a political connotation to it in order to use the issue as part of the campaigns against Cuba.

However, recent polls taken in Miami – and the census data – clearly show how Cuban migration over the last few years has basically resulted from economic reasons, with patterns increasingly closer to the economy-oriented migration taking place from the countries in the South to the developed countries of the North.

Finally, I want to assert that the new measures adopted by the Bush Administration tighten the blockade, are a new violation of the rights of the Cubans, not only of those living here but also of those living in the US: of the right to visit families, of the right to travel, of the right to send them remittances, of the right to relate to one another. These are violations of rights enshrined in the US Constitution and in the main international human rights instruments.

Despite the fact that in this decade the hostility did not decrease, despite the fact that in this decade there was no decline in the attempts to overthrow the Revolution and further tighten the blockade, our country has carried out consistent actions in favor of easing the migration measures that as part of its defense had to be adopted throughout the years and a huge effort has been made – amid these unsuitable circumstances – to try and favor contacts between the immigrants and the Cubans living abroad and those living in our country.

I am going to briefly refer to the 18 measures that the Cuban Government has adopted and complied with since the dialogue of 1978 in favor of the contacts between the Cuban immigrants and the country, 18 major decisions; there are others, but I have made this selection.

In the dialogue of 1978, proposed by President Fidel Castro, who also headed the Cuban delegation that met with representatives of the Cuban community in the US, Cuba undertook to apply four measures – all of which were enforced:

First: The release by pardon of 3,000 inmates in Cuba accused of crimes committed against the security of the State or the country’s integrity and another 600 inmates convicted of violations of the legal provisions on migration.

Those were years of a huge confrontation, with the involvement of Cubans who had been dragged into the plans of the CIA, the dirty war, the acts of sabotage, the assassination plots and the armed bands with the operation of the US special services and its funding. There is already extensive official documentation declassified by the US, which relieves me of elaborating on the issue.

Cuba undertook to do so; it was a way of facilitating an atmosphere conducive to the normalization of relations. This was the first.

Second: Authorization was given for the departure from the national territory and their transfer to the US or any other country, as desired by those released, of all those inmates and their close relatives who expressed their wish to move abroad. They were pardoned.

Second measure: Whoever wanted to travel abroad could do so.

Third: Authorization was given for the permanent departure towards the US or other countries of people that had family or direct links with citizens or Cuban-born people living in such countries.

Until that moment, amid the confrontation, amid the situation created with the US aggression against Cuba, people in Cuba did not migrate for humanitarian reasons or family reunification. That is just to have an idea of what has been accomplished all these years.

The fourth measure of that moment in late 1978: As of January 1979, the Cuban Government authorized the visits to our country by the Cubans living abroad.

In 1979, that made it possible for over 102,000 Cubans living overseas to travel to our country for the first time.

All of these were measures adopted by our country amid the blockade, the Cuban Adjustment Act, the aggression of the US Government, the lack of cooperation.

Then came the Mariel boatlift, the non-compliance with the commitments made by the US Government – the Reagan and Bush Senior Administrations – where all those agreements were violated; that is, a story that I will not insist on.

In April 1994, the I Conference “The Nation and Emigration” was held. Another five decisions were put into practice by the Cuban Government, in addition to the former four.

First: The establishment of a division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to address matters pertaining to the Cubans living abroad; that was a demand of the immigrants, to have an institution of the Cuban Government to deal with the immigrants, their problems, to work as their counterpart, as a mechanism of linkage with the country. That was the inception of the Division of Attention to the Cubans Living Overseas, whose director, Ambassador Benigno Pérez, is the main organizer of the III Conference “The Nation and Emigration.”

That division was then created – and has played an important role all these years in organizing Cuba’s consular service with its nationals throughout the world. Today, there are 127 places in the world where Cuba provides consular services. There are 127 Cuban consulates or consular offices in the world. That is a great human and material effort by our country to bring consular services closer to the community.

However, in the US we have a Cuban consulate only in Washington; there are no other places in the territory of the United States and, well, we can only provide consular services in Washington, with a great effort but as an indication of our will. That was an office created as a result of a demand by the Cubans. It has been operational for ten years now.

Second: At that Conference, a decision was made by the Cuban authorities to remove the requirement that set forth that if a Cuban migrated legally they had to wait for at least five years to return to the country on a visit. All of these were measures stemming from the period of most confrontation and most restrictive measures in the migration field – and from that moment on, the Cubans who migrated legally could return to the country as soon as they settled in another country. Thus, such requirement that forced them to wait for five years was eliminated.

Third: Authorization was given for young Cuban immigrants to be able to come to our universities and engage in post-graduate studies in Cuba. It was April 1994, when the Cuban universities were making a huge effort not to close down, amid the toughest moment of the economic crisis and the Special Period.

I think that this decision was a whole symbol of our people’s generosity, of its will to seek relations, to normalize relations with the Cuban community living beyond our borders.

Fourth: A decision was made to publish a magazine in Cuba devoted to migration, El correo de Cuba (Cuba’s Post), that has been published amid huge efforts and whose digital version we will launch at the Conference.

I will make a side comment: At the III Conference, we are supposed to put in operation the portal Nation and Emigration, aimed at providing some space on the Internet to deal with the Cubans living abroad – at the beginning, to offer information, to allow contacts with Cuba, and in the future, if possible, to even render consular and other services through that website.

The portal will have the digital versions of El correo de Cuba. This is the issue dedicated to the III Conference “The Nation and Emigration” (copy shown). It was a request of the immigrants. The magazine was published and we have maintained it in these tough and difficult years in which Cuba’s printing activity was, of course, constrained as a result of the Special Period.

And the fifth measure adopted in the I Conference: Removal of the provision setting forth that it was compulsory for a Cuban living abroad to stay in a hotel when coming to Cuba; they had to buy a hotel package, stay in a hotel – that was how it had been organized at the beginning. That was also eliminated. And all these years, the Cubans who have come have gone to hotels if desired, but if not, they have stayed with their relatives. They have organized their trip to Cuba as preferred.

These were five decisions adopted during the I Conference.

Several days afterwards, in August 1994, amid the announcement of new restrictions against the Cubans overseas and Cuba by the then US Administration – and also amid the crisis derived from the manipulation of the migration issue against Cuba, another five measures were adopted by the Cuban Government.

First: The minimum age required for a Cuban to travel abroad for personal reasons on a temporary basis was reduced to 18 years. Up until that moment, those trips were for much older people. I guess that back then it was for people older than 55 or 60 years of age, who were authorized to travel abroad for humanitarian reasons.

As of that moment, in August 1994, any adult Cuban could travel overseas and visit their relatives. With that, there was a drastic reduction in such restriction that until that moment limited the departure of the Cubans to visit their families.

Second: There was an expansion – from 6 to 11 months, which was the limit at the moment – in the time that a Cuban could be abroad on a temporary visit for personal reasons. That was a new measure that provided more time, more possibility of being abroad, although most people used to travel for less time.

Third: There was an expansion in the provisions to accept the final return to the country by people older than 60 years of age to settle definitely in our country again.

Fourth: Removal of the provision setting forth that a Cuban who was living abroad on a temporary basis for personal reasons – that is, not an immigrant but a person living temporarily abroad domiciled in Cuba, with an overseas residency permit – had to apply for a permit or an authorization to travel to Cuba. That provision was eliminated in August 1994. As of August 1994, the Cubans residing temporarily abroad did not have to ask for authorization or apply for a permit; they just had to buy their air ticket and return to the country.

Fifth: Provisions were also adopted for the temporary residency overseas of those Cubans who settled abroad not only for family, personal or marital reasons, but for other motives, either personal or work-related.

In 1995, during the II Conference “The Nation and Emigration,” the Cuban authorities introduced the so-called Travel Validity, a multiple entry permit for the country. Any Cuban engaging in the relevant formalities and adopting a Travel Validity could come in and out of the country without the need for a new permit.

Last year, Cuba was visited by over 20,000 Cubans with a Travel Validity; that is, a document that allowed them to come in and out of the country freely all the time without any other procedures, as many times as they wanted during the year. And by last year, nine years after its enforcement, over 20,000 Cubans used their Travel Validity.

And in 1995, at the II Conference, authorization was also given for young Cubans living abroad to not only engage in post-graduate courses in Cuban universities, as agreed before, but also to take university courses in our country on a cost-recovery basis, not free of charge but as part of a program in which they paid for those studies.

Later on, in 1995, the Foreign Investment Act recognized the right of the Cubans living abroad to invest; it did not discriminate against the Cubans living overseas. It included them in the possibilities offered by such Act.

And, finally, last September we announced – and confirmed later on – that as of 1 June 2004 the Cubans living abroad, the Cuban immigrants, would not have to apply for an entry permit to travel to Cuba. Simply, every Cuban living overseas with a valid passport will be able to come into the country as many times as desired, from our point of view, although this comes into a clash with the restriction imposed by the US Government, which has led a Cuban not to be able to come to Cuba until after three years of the previous visit – that has been established by the US Government. It seems that such measure will be enforced that way. It is not even for those who will come in the future, but for those who have already come; that is, if a Cuban came last year, he or she will not be able to come until after two years. The decision of the US Government is also retroactively applied.

It so happens that by 1 June the US authorities will be announcing the implementation of these restrictive measures, while we had already symbolically taken 1 June as the day to announce one of the most important demands and suggestions made in these former meetings with the delegates to the Conferences: the removal of the entry permit to finally be enforced.

That is, our consulates are already engaged in the preparatory work. As of 1 June, they will begin to validate the passports – and the Cubans living abroad will be able to come to Cuba without going through any other procedures. Obviously, there will be no validation in the passports of those Cubans who are members of terrorist groups – the small number of Cubans living overseas who, on account of national security reasons, are not allowed into the country. Most of the Cuban community living overseas will have their passports validated and will not have to apply for the entry permit that was provided for until now.

In brief, I have recalled here 18 measures that reveal that throughout the years – when there has been an increase in the hostility, in the campaigns, when new restrictions were enforced against Cuba through the Cuban Adjustment Act, the “dry feet-wet feet policy,” the encouragement to illegal migration, the distortion and manipulation of the migration issue by the US Government – our country has expressed a consistent will of rapprochement and normalization.

I have announced measure 19, the portal Nation and Emigration, to be presented at the Conference – and we are examining and discussing new decisions to be taken up with the delegates that will be informed in due course.

I would like to conclude by stating that the III Conference “The Nation and Emigration” is a new indication that the process undertaken by the Cuban authorities in the 1978 dialogue is irreversible, a signal of maturity and responsibility of the Cuban Government, only possible by the level of political culture reached by our people, which allows us to undertake such a major human and social process under so complex circumstances.

Therefore, 10 years after the I Conference, we believe that we can appear at the III Conference “The Nation and Emigration” expressing that the Cuban authorities have given proof that such spirit announced before is now based on facts.

Last year, our country was visited by 167,710 Cubans living abroad. Just to have an idea, some 35,000 Cubans living overseas came to Cuba in 1994; 35,000 in 1994 and 167,710 in 2003. That would not have been possible without the effort made, first and foremost, by the Cuban people, which kept the country free – and, secondly, by the Cuban authorities that have made it possible and have worked along these lines, still with problems to solve.

I remember that this happened in the years in which the US Government prevented the Cubans living in the US from coming to Cuba whenever they wanted to; they could only come to Cuba once a year; now they have said that it is not once a year, but once every three years. But, well, there were also restrictions enforced in this decade.

Of those 167,710 Cubans, some 115,142 came from the US; nearly 1 in every 10 Cubans living in the US came to visit Cuba last year.

On the other hand, there are now more than 50,000 Cubans living temporarily abroad, as a result of the serious and mature enforcement of all these decisions. There are over 50,000 Cubans living abroad without having migrated. Their domicile, their permanent residency is in Cuba, but they are overseas on a temporary basis for as long as they want. The day they desire to return to the country, they can do so and come back to their homes, to the ration card, to the grocery store. In the meantime, they can travel to Cuba as many times as they want to.

These are Cubans who have gone abroad for personal reasons and reside there. Over 50,000 as we speak.

Of those, some 34,000 Cubans who live overseas on a temporary basis came to Cuba last year. They can do it as many times as they want to.

On the other hand, more than 113,000 Cubans who live in Cuba went overseas in 2003. Of those, nearly 40,000 did so for personal reasons, not in relation to their work or official problems, but because of personal reasons: family visits, invitations by friends, tourism, pleasure trips.

However, of the nearly 40,000 Cubans, only 6,757 were able to travel to the US to meet with their relatives.

Why was there not a bigger number? Because the US Government did not give them the visa; it did not allow them to visit their family and return to the country. Had they been allowed to do so, bigger numbers of Cubans would have been able to go and see their relatives there, as part of a process that should take place naturally; but the US Government has pointed out that what is important is to increase the pressure within Cuba. That is the objective of all these measures – for the “boiler to get hot and blow up.”

For that reason, the issue of the visas has been manipulated as well. That is the reason why last year we had to publicly denounce that six months into the year in which the US should give 20,000 visas for the definitive migration of Cubans, only 700 had been issued. Following our denunciation, they then hurried, felt exposed and ended up issuing a little more than 20,000 visas.

In 2000, for example, the US Government allowed 37,983 Cubans living in our country to travel to the US on a temporary visit to see their relatives. Some 37,983 people were authorized in 2000; however, in 2003, only 6,757 – as a result of the absurd policy that violates the rights of the Cubans living in the US and here in our country, which prevents them from visiting their relatives.

From 38,000 in 2000, the figure dropped to 6,700 in 2003. The US Government does not allow the Cubans to visit their relatives; it manipulates the issue; it violates their rights. We have no restrictions. Whoever is authorized by the US Government can go and see their relatives.

On the other hand, in the nine years of enforcement of the migration accord signed in late 1994 – an accomplishment of the Cuban authorities and of the Cuban people, which led the US Government to undertake to issue no fewer than 20,000 visas per annum, because during the Reagan and Bush Senior Administrations and at the beginning of the Clinton Administration, in those years in which the US should have given 200,000 visas to migrate (the accord said “up to 20,000 per annum;” they could have given 200,000) – they issued 11,000, under the same assumption of increasing the heat on the boiler. They gave only 11,000 and that triggered the 1994 boatlift.

Then the agreement was negotiated, by means of which they had to accept no fewer than 20,000 instead of up to 20,000 – and rely on goodwill. Under that agreement, more than 200,000 Cubans have been able to migrate legally to the US over the last nine years.

It was the Cuban Government, along with the Cuban Revolution, the one that defended the right to migrate; it facilitated the airlift after Camarioca, the migration accords following the 1980 boatlift and the current migration accords threatened by the US Government – since it has suspended the migration talks that were held every six months to assess the enforcement of such agreement.

In the last few years, more than 200,000 Cubans have migrated legally, also as a result of our seriousness and our will.

I think that these are the elements that I can make available to you, while reiterating our satisfaction over being able to receive the delegates to this Conference on Friday.

There will be delegates coming from the US. We do not know how many of them will be able to make it, amid the atmosphere created in Miami, the ongoing announcements by the US Government; a portion of them is already here in our country.

There will also be representatives of the Cuban community living in 40 countries, who face a different situation.

Hundreds of meetings have taken place in our consulates with the groups of immigrants to explain the content of the Conference to them, to exchange views with them. The relation of the Cubans with our consulates is something already common today.

A portion of the Cubans residing abroad are actively connected with the fight against the blockade, in favor of the normalization of relations – and I would add that this year there is a special merit to the participation of Cuban delegates from the US, because amid this atmosphere of more tension and danger than in 1994 it is an indication of full interest in the relations with the country, its authorities and its people by the Cubans who in defiance of all those perils and pressures will be arriving from various parts of the US to attend the Conference.

We welcome them all and we are certain that the Conference will provide a new, useful space of reflection; respectful, extensive and sincere analysis of our country’s relations with its immigrants, which will be instrumental in following, in the future, this irreversible path of normalization of relations between the country and its immigrants.

Moderator.- Questions on the issue, Mauricio.

Maurice Vicéns (El País).- Morning, Minister.

There are three questions:

One is on the criteria to select these 200 people who have come or have confirmed their attendance. Have those coming from the US faced any problems with the State Department to get the visa or has everything gone well?

The second is on one of the nearly 20 measures that the Cuban Government has adopted since 1978. One has to do with the expansion to 11 months of the time that a Cuban can be outside on a trip and come back without losing some rights. This is one of the concerns that some of the people have when they have overstayed and cannot come back to their country freely. Is this going to be examined? Is it under study to expand this?

And the third: You were mentioning that 113,000 Cubans traveled abroad. If you are taking the step of removing the entry permit for the Cubans who live overseas, are you also going to remove the exit permit for the Cuban nationals to be able to travel abroad?

Felipe Pérez.- Ok, thanks.

The criteria followed to invite people to the Conference have been extensive: we have invited all the Cubans and children of Cubans living abroad who want their homeland free – and that was expressed in the announcement for the Conference. We extended over 1,000 invitations and we expect more than 200 attendees. There are also family problems at play, people who cannot come for several reasons at this time. The criteria have been extensive, similar to what prevailed at the I and II Conferences. Obviously, we have excluded from the invitations those who support the blockade on Cuba, those who support the policy of the US Government towards our country; we have no space for dialogue with those who join the policy of aggressions against their country of birth. They have not been invited.

The Miami-based extremist, hard-line groups have not been invited; nor have we invited the groups that have organized terrorist activities, not only against our country but also against the Cubans who have worked in favor of the normalization of relations all these years. We have commemorated an anniversary of the murder of Carlos Muñiz Varela, a trailblazer in these efforts.

Those have been the criteria; that is, only excluding the minority sectors – though powerful and influential – of the Cuban migration in the US and some elsewhere who have been working to serve the policy of aggression and pressures against Cuba.

Actually, most of the Cubans who travel abroad for personal reasons do so in less than 11 months; that is, they use a lot less of the time allotted to solve their problems and the motives that caused them to go abroad. A discussion on the issue is not among the measures that we are examining at the moment, but the Conference can discuss that and we can hear any opinion, any viewpoint by the immigrants.

Here, we must make a clear distinction. There are issues that have to do with the Cubans living in the country, which are not issues for decision-making at a Conference with immigrants or Cubans residing abroad, but there is no issue about which we cannot hear opinions, standpoints or exchange views.

The so-called exit permit is not under consideration either as a decision to be made at the Conference. In any case, it must be clearly established that the Cuban migration regulations are based on the country’s need to defend itself in this field – since the migration issue has been manipulated and turned into a subject of aggression and campaigns against the country.

The country is entitled to defend itself and has done so under its laws and regulations. That does not mean that it has to examine the validity of the measures adopted, their need, their relevance – in order to modify whatever has to be modified and changed. That is, under the recognition that migrating is a right, that settling abroad is a personal decision, that staying in the country and deciding to live with the hardships and the dangers, but also with the satisfaction of the defending the Homeland here is a totally voluntary act and a personal decision, that there are no stereotypes on this issue, any danger of hackneyed treatment by both sides has been left behind since the I and II Conferences and the dialogue of 1978.

Therefore, our course is to increasingly facilitate contacts and relations when there is no blockade, where there are no aggressions, when there is no manipulation of the migration issue, when there are no programs aimed at increasing the brain drain, when there are no plans by the US Government and no money to encourage the defection of Cuban doctors and the Cuban professionals who reside abroad. When all of that comes to an end, we will also see the end of the measures that had to be implemented for Cuba to defend itself.

Martín Medem (Televisión Española).- I wanted to ask you to repeat a figure and then put a question. The figure is how many Cubans were able to migrate legally to the US last year.

Felipe Pérez.- Nearly 17,000. As a matter of fact, they should have at least given 20,000 visas; but, well, some 17,000 Cubans opted to migrate legally to the US last year.

Martín Medem.- Yes, the question is whether you have any official estimate on the amount of money arriving in Cuba as a result of the remittances sent by the immigrants in the US to their relatives on the island and to what extent that can be reduced with the new US measures.

Along the same lines, do you think that with the tightening of the US blockade and its threats tourism can be daunted and reduce its flow to Cuba?

Felipe Pérez.- As has been said, it is very difficult to estimate the amount of the remittances, but without a doubt several hundreds of millions of dollars have been sent by the Cubans living abroad to their relatives in Cuba. It is very difficult to gauge that because there are no mechanisms in place to that end. The US already had draconian regulations to prevent, curtail and prohibit the right of the Cubans there; now those measures have increased. Without a doubt, the new measures adopted by the Administration will make it more difficult and dangerous for the Cubans to send remittances.

Remember that the US Government announced an official plan to encourage the financing of “stool pigeons” who give away another family that has sent money to Cuba in violation of the regulations. That is, whoever gives away another family that has sent money to their relatives in Cuba or who has sent remittances to an aunt – which is forbidden now – will be rewarded with money from the federal budget in accordance with the new regulations.

Of course, all of that is going to have an impact – and many families will really be afraid of breaking the law, and that will always generate confusion and reluctance.

We believe that the decision of the US Government to also act in third countries to prevent tourism from coming to Cuba by financing programs, as they have recognized, of negative propaganda against Cuba, is not only an extraterritorial expression of the enforcement of decisions by the US Government; the US Government would go to European capitals and to many other countries so that the nationals of those countries refrain from coming to Cuba as tourists; they would do so by working with the media; by undertaking, as they have said, covert and public actions; by encouraging groups to campaign against tourism.

An advanced expression of the issue is the so-called NGO Reporters San Frontiers, which is engaged in France in a campaign against French tourism to Cuba, with money of the US Government and of some Miami-based extremist groups. Reporters San Frontiers is a government organization, not from the French Government; it is from the US Government. It is one of the forerunners of these plans. That can have an effect on Cuba’s tourism. It is a harsh, mean measure – at a moment in which the country has to face a difficult economic situation and tourism is its backbone. With that, an attempt is made to cut off any lifeline of the country to receive the hard currency required for children’s food, medicine, schools, the protection of the elderly, etc. It is a blow to our economy – and the effect of these measures on our economy and on the life of the Cubans cannot be underestimated.

Anthony Boadle (Reuters).- Good morning, Foreign Minister.

Are you inviting Mr. Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo to this Conference? I understand that his daughter received an invitation.

Felipe Pérez.- Both are invited.

Anthony Boadle.- And, by the way, what is Mr. Menoyo’s legal status in Cuba? Is he a national or a visiting immigrant?

Felipe Pérez.- Mr. Gutiérrez Menoyo has been invited to the Conference, as well as his daughter. They both took part in the former and his status is still pending.

Aníbal Arrate (La Raza, Chicago).- Good morning, Minister.

Minister, could you tell us what other countries have confirmed their participation in the event. .

Felipe Pérez.- Forty countries.

Aníbal Arrate.- Yes, but which countries can these be? Because there are too many, I understand.

Felipe Pérez.- The biggest groups of Cuban immigrants are in the US. In addition to that, there are 200,000 Cubans in the rest of the world. The second largest group is Spain, with 60-70,000; the third largest group of Cuban immigrants is Venezuela, with 40-50,000; then Mexico, practically all countries in Latin America, and Europe. There are Cubans in over 100 countries, but more than 90% is in a group of 20 European and Latin American countries, plus the US.

Aníbal Arrate.- Minister, the last question. The delegates who can come from the US, what social status do they have? Are they from groups, are there members of the Government, or from State Governments, or from organizations, NGOs, whatever?

Felipe Pérez.- They come individually; a portion of them is in US organizations that have been coming up in the last few years or that existed before, some of which have been clearly in favor of the lifting of the blockade, in favor of the normalization of relations – and I think that they represent Cuban migration.

Recent studies have revealed that contrary to what has been published on many occasions, although the Cuban community in the US reflects socio-economic indicators higher than those of the rest of the Hispanic community, it is estimated that there are nearly 36 million Hispanics in the US; of those, 1,300,000 are Cubans; Cubans account for 4% of the Hispanics living in the US and 0.4% of the American population.

Of course, the Cubans are highly concentrated in southern Florida, where there are almost 800,000; perhaps 900,000 in all of southern Florida; however, the census data reveal that 18% of the Cubans live below the poverty line in the US. And for a family of four people, the US Government has placed the poverty limit at US$ 25,000 per annum. The US Government estimates that if a family of four people gets less than US$ 25,000 per annum, they are below the poverty line, according to the indicators for the medical insurance, housing, in brief, all the expenses to be incurred. It is estimated that 18% of those people are below the poverty line and over 50% receive income under US$ 30,000 per annum for a family of four; that is, above the poverty line, but quite close to it. So most of the families who send remittances are composed of employees, people who live on their salary and save a portion of it to send it to their relatives. These are the Cubans who arrived in the US after 1980, who are increasingly more; they are not the owners of businesses; they are not the first migrations; these are more recent migration waves. These people are the ones with most relatives in Cuba, with most links with the country – and who send a portion of their savings.

Just pay attention to the figure I gave: 18% below the poverty line and over 50% with income under US$ 30,000 per annum for a family of four people; between both, we are talking about 68% making money below the poverty line or up to US$ 30,000 per annum, with the poverty line set at US$ 25,000 per annum for a family of four. We are talking about families like the rest of the Latin American families – Salvadorian, Mexican – who go to work, save up and send money to their relatives. These are the people affected by the US Government.

Many of the groups and agents that demand the non-lifting of the blockade – that minority, that elite that did benefit from the money there and the programs, a portion of which stole money from Cuba (let us recall the report of Felipe Pazos, President of the Bank, which stated that over US$ 400 million from the country’s reserves had been taken away in early January 1959) – do not send remittances; as a rule, they have no families in Cuba. Those who demand there the toughening of the blockade, as a rule, have no links with the country; they do not have their families here; they make a profit and benefit from that policy.

Final question.

Serguei Novozhilov (Agencia Noticiosa de Rusia, ITAR-TASS).- Minister, could Washington’s latest measures cause a new wave of illegal migration towards the United States?

Felipe Pérez.- We believe that the objective of those measures is to increase the pressure, to cause more hardships, to destabilize the country; we relieve that the objective of those measures is to cause a migration crisis.

The Helms-Burton Act sets forth that the US Government is compelled to act, in a forthcoming boatlift, as if it were an action of war against the US. That is, the text of the Helms-Burton Act, which is compulsory for the Government, says that a new migration wave should be faced as an act of war.

Let us recall that last year, with the highjackings of aircraft and boats that caused a tense migratory situation, the Head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington was called by the State Department to read him a document from the Homeland Security Department that said that “the US saw those acts as a threat to the national security of the United States.” The boatlift was beginning to be fabricated to present it as a danger – which led us to take drastic measures to cut it off.

And it should be said that if there has not been any boatlift in all these years it is because of the responsibility of the Cuban authorities, which have prevented the crisis from taking place – because what the US has done is to foster illegal migration through radio broadcasts. Some 2,400 weekly radio hours are being broadcast to Cuba encouraging illegal migration. Still in force is the “dry feet-wet feet policy” – as well as the Cuban Adjustment Act, which causes the Cubans to attempt to migrate because if they make it they receive privileges and can remain in the US.

Only last year, for the first time ever, the US authorities convicted aircraft highjackers. And all of this has been the result of the pressures and the battle waged by Cuba.

I hope that our measures and efforts will prevent a migration crisis, Serguei. It is our effort; it is our decision – and we have given proof of it and paid the costs in the eyes of the public opinion by adopting drastic measures to cut it off. We favor legal, safe and orderly migration from our territory.

By the way, there are nearly 2,000 Cubans registered in Moscow’s Consulate, right? Nearly 2,000 Cubans live in Russia, either temporarily or as immigrants, for family reasons or other motives. I can imagine that there are Cubans in Siberia and in all of Russia’s geography.

Well, Lucía, a special privilege, for being a lady. Do you object or agree?

Mar Marín (EFE).- No, I do not object. I want to be part of that privilege (Laughter).

Felipe Pérez.- Well, all right, two privileges and we are done.

Lucía Newman (CNN).- Well, this is a pretty controversial issue that they tried to touch upon at the last Conference and it did not work out. It has to do with the prices that have to be paid by the Cubans who migrate or want to go on a visit: US$ 150 for an immigration card, US$ 250 per person for the medical exam, US$ 150 for the exit permit. That is a fortune for a Cuban and even for their relatives, who, as you have rightfully said, are not that rich to pay for that. Is that going to be considered at this Conference?

Felipe Pérez.- We do not have it as an issue, but if it comes up there it will be discussed and examined. In any case, that has not been an obstacle to migration; as a matter of fact, all the Cubans who receive a visa from the US Government finally migrate towards that country. That is, the reason why the Cubans have not been able to migrate more towards the US legally is because they do not get the visas.

Lucía Newman.- It is a sacrifice; you have been talking about the sacrifices that have to be made on both sides. It is a huge sacrifice.

Felipe Pérez.- Yes, of course, everything is a sacrifice, including enduring the blockade and the pressures of the US Government – which is the greatest sacrifice imposed on all the Cubans. When there is no blockade and no aggression against Cuba, well, perhaps many of these things will change. It is true that in life it all works out like this. But it is more tasteful to fight for things, right?

Joking aside, Lucía, I think that is no obstacle to migration today; I mean, I think that migration is legally hindered towards the US because the US Government does not give the visas to the Cubans. If they gave 40,000 visas, well, 40,000 people would migrate.

Lucía Newman.- One more thing, now that I am here: Those who will be able to come without the entry permit from June onwards, will they be able to stay for as long as they want or will the month limit continue to apply?

Felipe Pérez.- No, we have made provisions to expand the period in which they can stay in the country. That issue will be taken up at the Conference. In any case, I will give you a tip: 93% of the Cubans who come on a visit stay in Cuba for a week; 93% between the two; that is, 85% for a week and up to 93% for fifteen days. Most of the Cubans who come – 85 in every 100 – cannot be in Cuba more than a week. Why? Because they have no vacations, because they have to go back to their jobs; I mean, it does not have to do with the regulations imposed by Cuba; most of them do not use up the time allotted by Cuba.

Mar Marín (EFE).- Thank you, Minister.

Lucía has already asked one of my questions – and I had two more.

One, I wanted to know if you can quantify the economic impact of the latest measures adopted by Bush; the other, if you have detected some uncertainty, some anger in the Cuban population over the emergency measures adopted by the Cuban Government after Bush’s plan and if you have any idea of how much time the restrictions on sales will last and how much increase the products will have. Thank you. (Laughter).

Felipe Pérez.- Do you have any supply problems these days? Did you manage to stock up on needed items?

We cannot quantify these losses and the economic impact that it will have; in any case, the measures announced against tourism, against the travels to Cuba, against remittances are a serious disruption to the Cuban economy; it should not be underestimated; they violate International Law and the rights of the Cubans. We would not be able to quantify the losses, but we do know that they cause serious additional damage to what is already generated by the blockade on the country.

The blockade already has nine major prohibitions: Cuba cannot export to the United States; it cannot import items from the US, only foodstuffs and in a restricted manner, paying in cash; it cannot receive any tourism from the US; it cannot use the dollar as currency for foreign trade with third parties; it cannot receive ships from other countries because later on those ships cannot go to US ports until after six months; it cannot trade with subsidiaries of US companies based in third countries; the businesspeople from other countries engaging in trade with Cuba lose their entry visas for the US under the Helms-Burton Act; it has been announced now that they will examine the possibility of also enforcing Title III of the Helms-Burton Act – which provides for lawsuits in the US against businesspeople from other countries making investments in Cuba; no foreign company can sell to Cuba any product with over 10% of US components; therefore, Cuba cannot purchase Boeing airplanes because they are from the US and cannot purchase Airbus aircraft because they are from Europe but have over 10% of American components; nor can a company sell anything to the US if there are Cuban components in the product being exported to the US. For that reason, a Japanese carmaker has to certify to the US that in the metals used to manufacture the automobile there is no Cuban nickel. The blockade entails all that.

The blockade prevents Cuba from gaining access to funding from the World Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank. The blockade entails all that.

The blockade is Section 211; the blockade is the persecution of Cuban businesses around the world.

The measures announce that the US Government will “neutralize” – it says – Cuba’s foreign trade operations and the way in which Cuba trades with the rest of the world to try and go after them.

Right now, the Embassies of the United States in the world are compiling information, sending them models to be filled out and calling third-country companies on the phone if these are trading with Cuba, asking them what they are selling to Cuba, under what conditions – not US companies, third-country companies.

What is the US Government doing, as a goalkeeper, chasing after companies from other countries that engage in trade with or sell items to Cuba?

Then, it cannot be quantified, but it is an important disruption that cannot be underestimated.

Of course, it causes anger and rejection in Cuba. I think that the most obvious evidence was the demonstration of 1,200,000 Cubans the other day in favor of the rights of the Cubans who live in Cuba and those living in the US, as well as the American citizens whose rights are also violated. There is a great deal of rejection.

I was also told that there is extensive rejection in the US and that, despite the atmosphere of terror and intolerance prevailing in Miami, there are new voices coming up to oppose these measures – which run counter to what we have done.

I do not know when the shops will open or what the price hike will be because I deal with foreign affairs, not domestic trade, but I think that there will be information available on that soon.

Moderator.- Than you very much, Minister.

Felipe Pérez.- Thank you.

 

 

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