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| Videoconference with Vice Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodriguez (inset) |
By Associated Press, The Washington Post, April 26, 2012
HAVANA — Cuban officials reached out to U.S. exiles on Saturday with a
videoconference between Havana and Washington, promising a highly anticipated
migratory reform, but cautioning that its scope might not satisfy everyone.
More than 100
Cuban-Americans and top Foreign Ministry officials discussed President Raul
Castro’s ongoing economic changes in the encounter, hosted by
“There has been great advance in this process of normalizing
relations” with the Cuban diaspora, Rodriguez said.
Amid the economic reforms and liberalized travel rules instituted by
President Barack Obama, Cuba has increasingly sought to dialogue with segments
of its large exile community, with several high-profile encounters recently.
Many exiles say they want nothing to do with government leaders in
their homeland until Raul and Fidel Castro are out of power, but others are
looking to play a role in the changes the island is undergoing.
A popular topic
during Saturday’s videoconference between the Foreign Ministry in Havana and
the Cuban Interests Section in Washington was a much-anticipated reform of
migratory rules that, among other things, require Cubans to apply for an exit
visa.
Cuban-Americans
also questioned the officials about regulations that strip those who leave
permanently of the right to own property back home, and bar them from investing
or accessing Cuba’s recently legalized real estate market, which is currently
only available to island residents.
Emigrants are
treated as second-class citizens, complained a man who identified himself as
Julio Ruiz of Miami.
Rodriguez said
reforms being studied will take into account the realities of 50 years of
emigration and make an “important contribution” to bringing Cubans everywhere
closer together. But he also cautioned people not to expect too much.
“The migratory
relaxation will take into account the revolutionary state’s right to defend
itself from the interventionist plans of the U.S. government and its allies,
and at the same time, reasonable countermeasures will be imposed to preserve
the human capital created by the revolution,” Rodriguez said.
University of
Denver scholar Arturo Lopez-Levy said it’s clear the Cuban government is
looking to build bridges to exiles, but so far it has been talking more than
listening.
“The official
statements indicate that the government is interested in improving relations
between the island and its diaspora,” Lopez-Levy said. “Nevertheless such
improvement has not been conceived as part of a dialogue, which implies two-way
communication and decision-making.
Still, there have
been a number of prominent exchanges in recent weeks.
During Pope
Benedict XVI’s recent visit to Cuba, hundreds of Cuban-Americans came here as
pilgrims including Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who called for a “soft
landing” from Marxism during an emotional sermon at the Havana Cathedral.
Earlier this month, the Catholic Church organized a conference of scholars from
the Cuban diaspora in Havana.
And Cuban-American
businessman Carlos Saladrigas, a one-time hardline anti-Castro militant whose
stance toward the island government has softened somewhat, held a conference
that was attended by people ranging from dissidents to intellectuals to
Communist Party members and others to the left of the communist-run government.
Rodriguez said
400,000 Cuban-Americans came to the island last year to see families or on
religious or academic exchanges.
Such visits have
increased sharply since Obama lifted restrictions on how often Cuban-Americans
can travel back home.
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