The Miami Herald
November 29, 2001

New round of Cuba-US migration talks scheduled

 HAVANA -- (AP) -- A new round of Cuba-U.S. migration talks has been set for Monday amid Havana's renewed protests of an American law it blames for the recent deaths of 30 migrants.

 The talks, to be held in Havana, were announced in a small article in the Communist Party daily Granma.

 Before a crowd of tens of thousands of Havana residents, President Fidel Castro earlier this week blamed U.S. policies for the deaths of 30 Cuban migrants whose boat capsized in the Florida Straits in mid November. Thirteen children were believed to be among the passengers.

 Relatives in South Florida said the group left Nov. 16 and was supposed to arrive on Nov. 17. The U.S. Coast Guard later found a capsized 30-foot speedboat believed to be used for the journey, but no bodies were recovered.

 Havana blames the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act for hundreds of similar deaths over the decades, saying that it encourages Cubans to undertake risky ocean journeys. The law lets Cubans who reach American soil avoid repatriation.

 The Cuban government maintains that existing agreements with the United States allow for the orderly migration of Cubans who want to live in the United States and that the United States should do more to prevent illegal trips that puts lives at risk.

 The accords were signed after the 1994 rafters crisis, which saw about 30,000 Cubans take to the sea in boats bound for the United States after Castro said his
 government would not stop anyone who wanted to leave.

 Under the present agreements, talks are held alternately in the United States and Cuba every six months, with the last round held in New York in July.

 Since January 1995, the accords have allowed more than 130,000 Cubans legally move to the United States.

                                    © 2001