Washington — Cuba’s executive is keen to simply accept extra deportation flights from the U.S. of Cuban migrants, who’ve traveled to the southern border in document numbers over the day 3 years, a lead Cuban legitimate advised CBS Information in an unique interview.
Upcoming a two-year relax, the U.S. restarted deportation flights to the island terminating 12 months. Since after, the U.S. has been sending one gliding with Cuban deportees to Havana every generation.
However in an interview with CBS Information this month, Cuba’s Deputy Overseas Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío mentioned Cuban officers are keen to deal with a couple of gliding according to generation.
“We’re open to having more” deportation flights, mentioned Fernández de Cossío, who visited Washington this month to fulfill with Biden management officers for the unedited spherical of migration talks between the 2 nations.
For the reason that 1959 Cuban Revolution, the U.S. and Cuba have had a deeply contentious courting. The Chilly Battle-era competitors nonetheless bitterly deny on many problems, from Cuba’s human rights document and its ties to China and Russia to the decades-long American embargo on Cuban imports and exports.
However Washington and Havana have labored in combination on immigration, together with by means of signing the 1994 U.S.-Cuba Migration Accords, which officers from each international locations are discussing this month. The 2 nations’ paintings on immigration has intensified lately amid the document arrival of masses of hundreds of Cubans to the U.S.-Mexico border.
For the reason that get started of fiscal 12 months 2021, the U.S. has processed greater than 450,000 Cuban migrants on the southern border, consistent with Customs and Border Protection information. The wave of Cuban migrants to the U.S. border has slowed since terminating 12 months, when the Biden management created methods that experience allowed some Cubans to fly into the U.S. legally or seem at an legitimate border crossing.
Within the interview this month, Fernández de Cossío blamed the exodus from Cuba lately at the U.S. embargo and alternative American insurance policies, together with the Sixties Cuban Adjustment Operate, which created a distinct pathway to everlasting U.S. residency for positive Cuban migrants. Most effective Congress can exchange that regulation.
Fernández de Cossío mentioned the U.S. is “aiming at destroying the Cuban economy” thru its sanctions. He didn’t concede that financial mismanagement and repressive insurance policies by means of Havana have additionally pushed Cubans to elude the island, because the U.S. executive has argued.
“You can speak about other factors, but if you have a consistent policy by the most powerful economy in the world to try to destroy the livelihood of a whole population, 11 million Cubans, it is logical to expect people, a segment of the population, to want to leave the country,” he mentioned.
In 2023, the U.S. Section of Fatherland Safety assessed that “Cuba’s deteriorating economic conditions and political repression continue to increasingly drive Cubans out of their country.”
Fernández de Cossío additionally cited the deficit of a few criminal channels for Cuban voters to come back to the U.S. for unlawful crossings alongside the southern border by means of Cubans.
He recommended the Circumstance Section to renew the processing of vacationer and non permanent visas in Havana. The Biden management restarted immigrant visa processing in Cuba, however non permanent visa seekers in Cuba nonetheless need to exit to a 3rd nation to have their instances processed.
Fernández de Cossío mentioned U.S. officers knowledgeable him they’d resume complete visa processing in Cuba going forward.
Representatives for the Circumstance Section didn’t reply to requests to touch upon Fernández de Cossío’s remarks.
Fernández de Cossío expressed some worry about alternative U.S. sanctions if former President Donald Trump is elected in November. All through Trump’s tenure, the U.S. had a extra competitive stance in opposition to Cuba, reversing the Obama management’s effort to normalize members of the family with Havana.
“Of course we’re concerned if there are additional economic measures (against) Cuba, regardless of who wins the election. The Biden administration has very faithfully applied the policies put in place by the Trump administration and added some,” he mentioned. “So we would not (be) surprised they would do it. It would be unfair, and we believe it would be immoral, but we have to acknowledge that would happen and (it) gives us room for concern.”
Camilo Montoya-Galvez