The US confirmed that it will hold talks on migration with Cuba

US Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed Wednesday that his country will hold migration talks with Cuba, which will be the first high-level contact between Washington and Havana since President Joe Biden is in power.

Without giving great details, Mayorkas recalled in a press conference at the end of a visit to Panama that for years the US and Cuba had immigration agreements, which ended up being “discontinued”.

In this new dialogue, both countries will “explore” the possibility of reactivating these agreements.

Mayorkas remarked that this “reflects” his country's commitment to legal and humanitarian avenues so that migrants do not have to embark on a “dangerous” journey by sea.

The Cuban dictatorship announced on Tuesday the holding of a round of talks on migration with US officials that will take place tomorrow, Thursday.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry specified that the meeting will take place in Washington, and that its delegation “will be chaired by Carlos Fernández de Cossío, deputy minister of foreign affairs.”

The announcement came six days after the US Immigration and Customs Control (ICE) denounced that the Cuban dictatorship has not accepted the repatriation of Cubans for months.

According to ICE, Cuba has not accepted any deportation of Cubans since last October by commercial or charter flights from United States territory. During this time, only 20 Cubans have voluntarily returned to the island from the United States.

The departure of Cubans, mainly to the United States, has increased markedly in recent months, something that experts link first of all to the serious economic crisis that the island is going through.

According to data from US immigration authorities, between October and February some 47,331 Cuban migrants entered the United States, after a record number of 16,657 reached the border in February alone.

Havana, which advocates orderly, legal and controlled migration, accuses Washington of encouraging irregular flows to the United States and of failing to comply with bilateral agreements on migration.

EXILE REJECTED NEGOTIATIONS

The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, which brings together several opposition organizations from inside and outside the island, expressed its rejection on Tuesday of the beginning of talks about the migration crisis between the United States Government and the “communist tyranny.”

The assembly recalled that “the Castro regime is a regime that violates human rights that has committed and is committing crimes against humanity” and therefore “these negotiations send a message of weakness and not of support to the Cuban people, at a time when the struggle for freedom is progressively increasing in the country.”

The group of opposition organizations recalled that after the protests in Cuba on July 11, 2021, and the series of mass trials and convictions of protesters that they have provoked, the exchange between officials from both countries “constitutes a real gift to a dictatorship that must be punished for its oppression of the Cuban people.”

The Assembly of the Cuban Resistance also pointed out that the increase in the arrival of Cubans to the United States “is not surprising,” since it is the result of a “migratory pressure that the regime has exerted against the American Government in recent months” as an “escape valve” in the face of the “rebelliousness of the Cuban people.”

“Migration to the United States, particularly under Democratic administrations, has been used so many times by the Castro dictatorship as a political weapon that the maneuver is sadly predictable,” the group said in a statement.

He also recalled that the Cuban Government has expressed its full support for the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

(With information from EFE)

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