MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

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

Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban parliament

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.