Thread: Migration, drug enforcement likely first topics

Migration, drug enforcement likely first topics

By ANITA SNOW, The Associated Press
4:16 p.m. April 18, 2009

HAVANA — Cuba and the U.S. are likely to tackle migration and drug trafficking first if the two cold-war foes can successfully start talks, which would precede any meetings between presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro.

More prickly themes such as human rights, the U.S. embargo and subjects involving the presidents would likely be set aside for later.

Restarting U.S.-Cuba talks on a modest level would be easy. Until five years ago, the two countries held biannual meetings on migration aimed at preventing a mass exodus like the 2004 rafters crisis that saw tens of thousands of Cubans flee to the U.S. in rickety boats. President George W. Bush suspended them as unnecessary.

The two countries have not had formal diplomatic relations since they were cut by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on Jan. 3, 1961.

Drug enforcement in the Caribbean – another area in which Cuba and the U.S. already quietly cooperate – would also be an easy topic.

Raul Castro, who headed the Cuban military for decades before becoming president, long shared low-key communications with his U.S. counterparts, including information on hurricanes, immigrant smuggling and drug trafficking.
Other likely discussion themes include:

- U.S. EMBARGO: The Cuban government wants the U.S. to eliminate its 47-year-old trade embargo against the island, but Obama has said that won't occur until Cuba makes progress in human rights and democracy. Obama cannot remove the sanctions without U.S. congressional approval.

- HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES: Obama has said he wants to discuss basic liberties such as freedom of speech. Without saying he would consider any changes, Castro says he's ready to discuss "human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners – everything." Cuban officials have historically bristled at discussing the island's rights record.

- POLITICAL PRISONERS: The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and Reconciliation lists 205 political prisoners on the island. Castro has offered to send them all and their families to the United States in exchange for five Cubans serving long U.S. sentences on espionage charges. The prisoners in Cuba include people convicted of violent acts.

- EXTRADITION: More than 70 American fugitives live in Cuba, many of them black and Puerto Rican separatists sought in police killings or robberies in the 1970s. The communist government treats them as political refugees – a key reason the U.S. still labels Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism. But Cuba in recent years has routinely returned wanted Americans trying to seek refuge there.

- GUANTANAMO: Military officers from both countries have met periodically at the U.S. base in eastern Cuba since 1994 to discuss mutual matters. Cuba leases the property to the U.S. in an uneasy arrangement dating to the Spanish-American war and insists that it be returned to Cuban control.

(This version CORRECTS date relations cut to 1961 sted 1962)

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... ndex=84730

POLITICAL PRISONERS: The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and Reconciliation lists 205 political prisoners on the island. Castro has offered to send them all and their families to the United States in exchange for five Cubans serving long U.S. sentences on espionage charges. The prisoners in Cuba include people convicted of violent acts.

HELL NO! They can keep the 205 and we'll send them the 5 too!

Talk all you guys want and I pray that whatever is decided needs to be agreed upon by Congress. But then I worry about the Pelosi/Reid style of running the legislature: Go home, get some sleep and we will convene at 9 a.m. for a vote on the 1,100-page bill you were supposed to read before you fell asleep at 3 a.m. Obama should throw Congress into the mix, so at least us, the un-filthy rich Americans can take solace that we were able to give our opinion, which will be ignored as usual.
Just call me more frustrated than I have even been in my life.