Cuba blasts US leaders for meeting with dissidents
By PAUL HAVEN
Associated Press Writer
HAVANA -- Cuba scolded a top U.S. delegation Saturday for meeting with
political opposition leaders following high-level immigration
discussions, saying it proves Washington is out to topple the country's
communist government.
A senior American official defended the meeting, saying U.S. policy is
to reach out to all sectors of Cuban society - not just the communist
government.
American officials "called together dozens of their mercenaries" hours
after concluding highly anticipated talks on migration issues with Cuban
leaders in an undisclosed Havana location, Cuba's Foreign Ministry said.
Elizardo Sanchez, head of the independent Cuban Commission on Human
Rights and National Reconciliation, confirmed that a group of Cuban
dissident leaders met with the U.S. delegation late Friday at the
residence of the head of the U.S. Interests Section, which Washington
keeps in Havana because it has no diplomatic relations with the island.
Such a meeting is not unusual when U.S. diplomats visit. But enraged
Cuban leaders say the dissidents are not pro-democracy activists,
independent journalists and organizers of political opposition groups,
but paid agents of Washington planted to destabilize the island's
political system.
In a statement published in the Communist Party newspaper Granma, the
Foreign Ministry said U.S. leaders' meeting with dissidents was
"contrary to the spirit of cooperation and understanding showed on
Cuba's part" during the immigration talks and "demonstrated anew that
(U.S.) priorities are more related to supporting the counterrevolution
and the promotion of subversion to destabilize the Cuban revolution than
with the creation of a climate conducive to real solutions to bilateral
problems."
"From the very day he arrived in the country, the head of the North
American delegation was warned" that a visit with dissidents would not
be tolerated. The Ministry claimed that Washington funnels more than $20
million to groups that openly oppose its government, many based in
southern Florida.
When asked why the meeting with dissidents went ahead despite Cuba's
explicit request that it not, a senior State Department official said
the outreach is part of U.S. government policy around the world, not
just Cuba.
"We believe in reaching out to broad sectors of society in all countries
that we deal with ... and we don't make exceptions in particular
countries," the official said.
The official, who was not authorized to talk publicly about the meeting,
spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official said Washington thanked Cuba for allowing American relief
planes destined for Haiti to overfly Cuban territory, and also expressed
a willingness to work with Cuban doctors on the ground in the Haitian
capital, Port-au-Prince.
The U.S. delegation was headed by Craig Kelly, deputy assistant
secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs and the
highest-ranking American official to visit Cuba in years.
While meeting with their Cuban counterparts earlier Friday, delegation
officials strayed from the topic of immigration and called for the
immediate release of an American held in a maximum-security prison
without charge for nearly three months.
Cuba alleges Alan P. Gross, who came to the island as an American
government contractor, is a spy whose arrest is more evidence Washington
is working to topple its political system. Relatives of the 60-year-old
Maryland resident maintain he is a veteran development worker who was
distributing communications equipment to Cuban Jewish groups.
The State Department official said the U.S. delegation called for
Gross's "immediate release" and categorically denied he was spying.
"We made very clear our position," the official said, adding that the
Cuban side "took it on board."
The official said the U.S. asked Cubans to share any evidence against
Gross but did not say whether they complied.
Except for Gross' case and the subsequent American meeting with
dissidents, both sides had offered restrained praise for the immigration
discussions, which lasted about five hours. The Cubans said the talks
were positive and respectful, while the U.S. called them part of a
larger, constructive process.
The State Department official said that some members of the delegation
were staying on in Cuba for several more days, but that the lower-level
meetings would be limited to immigration. Kelly, the delegation head,
left Cuba on Saturday.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry said in its Saturday statement that its
delegation also talked about subjects not related to immigration,
including the release of five Cuban agents imprisoned in Miami since the
1990s after being convicted of spying. Cuba considers them
anti-terrorist fighters who were trying to shut down a bombing campaign
by anti-Castro Cuban-Americans.
Sanchez, the Cuban dissident, told The Associated Press that about 40
opposition figures took part in the meeting with Kelly on Friday night.
He said the American diplomat expressed the "good will" of President
Barack Obama's administration to improve Washington's icy relationship
with Cuba.
"I told him I was skeptical that Cuba would respond to Obama's
gestures," Sanchez said.
Cuba blasts US leaders for meeting with dissidents - Americas AP -
MiamiHerald.com (19 February 2010)
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/19/1489445/us-cuba-immigration-talks-get.html
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