US/Cuba dialogue to continue in spite of incident with "dissidents"

Monday, February 22nd 2010 - 05:56 UTC
US/Cuba dialogue to continue in spite of incident with "dissidents"

Cuba criticized US diplomats Saturday for meeting with political
opponents after bilateral talks on immigration in Havana, accusing the
diplomats of "promoting subversion."

Cuba's Foreign Relations Ministry said in a statement the US delegation
had met with "dozens of their mercenaries" at the private residence of
the top US diplomat in Cuba. However on Sunday Ricardo Alarcón,
president of the Cuban Parliament, member of the Political Bureau and
one of the historical heavy weights of the revolution said "dialogue
must continue" be it on migration "or any other issue of mutual interest
but based on respect".

The foreign ministry said the meeting showed "again that their
priorities are more related to supporting the counterrevolution and
promoting subversion to overthrow the Cuban Revolution than to creating
a climate conducive to real solutions for bilateral problems".

But US Assistant Secretary of State P.J. Crowley said that "meeting with
representatives of civil society who simply want a voice in the future
of their country is not subversion". He added "It is the exercise of the
universal right of freedom of assembly that Cuba continues to deny its
people".

Craig met with dissidents Elizardo Sánchez, Marta Beatriz Roque, Oswaldo
Payá, Vladimiro Roca, Félix Bonne, Francisco Chaviano and Juan Almeida,
son of a deceased outstanding commander of the revolution.
Biannual talks on immigration that started in the mid-1990s were broken
off in 2003 under President Bush.

They resumed in mid 2009 amid hopes for a thaw in relations between the
former Cold War enemies after the election of President Obama.

Cuba's complaint came after US diplomats at Friday's meeting called for
the immediate release of Alan Gross, an US citizen jailed since December
4, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement.
The detained man's wife, Judy Gross, also produced a video appeal for
her husband's release this week.

"We're hoping that the US officials and the Cuban officials can get
together and mutually agree on a way to bring him home," she said.

Maryland-based Development Alternatives Inc. said Gross was a
subcontractor working on a US Agency for International Development
project to support "just and democratic governance" in Cuba.

In a December speech, Cuban President Raul Castro said Gross was
illegally distributing "satellite communications equipment" to dissidents.

"The US government has not renounced its goal of destroying the
revolution," Castro said. "The enemy is as active as always. Proof of
that is the detention, in the last few days, of an American citizen."

The US delegation was headed by Craig Kelly, deputy assistant secretary
of state for the Western Hemisphere. Along with urging the release of
Gross, the delegation spoke about immigration issues.

US/Cuba dialogue to continue in spite of incident with "dissidents" —
MercoPress (22 February 2010)
http://en.mercopress.com/2010/02/22/us-cuba-dialogue-to-continue-in-spite-of-incident-with-dissidents