Cuban government meets with émigrés

By Fernando Ravsberg

From BBC Mundo, January 27, 2010

HAVANA — Francisco González Aruca escaped from La Cabaña prison disguised as a teenager. He had been sentenced to 30 years by Cuba’s revolutionary courts and charged with conspiracy as member of an illegal Catholic group. That was in the 1960s.

Aruca has a radio show that offers a different view of the Cuban reality.

He was granted asylum in the Brazilian embassy and remained there for 18 months before the Cuban government gave him permission to leave the country. Finally, Raúl Castro himself responded to a petition from the Brazilian Ambassador’s wife and provided Aruca with safe-conduct.

He arrived in Miami before the Cuban Missile Crisis and found that “the exiles were joining the U.S. Army to invade Cuba. That was too much for me.” In the 1960’s he joined an exile group that condemned the blockade and began to promote a dialogue with the Cuban government.

He founded the first charter airline that flies to Havana from Miami, runs a controversial radio show in Florida and has attended all meetings of the Cuban nation with its émigrés which started in 1978.

Another of the problems is that since the 1995 migration agreements there are 15,000 to 30,000 Cubans living in the U.S. that cannot visit Cuba because they allegedly left the country illegally.

He is currently participating as both a journalist and émigré at the meeting attended by 450 delegates from 42 countries. Almost half are from the U.S., home to approximately one million Cubans, the largest community of its kind abroad.

Guests were hand-picked by the Cuban Foreign Ministry from a group that “has an active attitude in the defense of the homeland (…), are in favor of the struggle against the blockade, and accept the country’s independence.”

There is speculation among political observers that the government would be willing to adopt migratory reforms in favor of émigrés in the weeks following the meeting.

In Cuba for the event, Aruca gave the following interview to BBC Mundo.

What benefits can the meetings of “the nation and its émigrés” garner?

At the first meeting in 1978 there were two very important developments: 3,000 political prisoners were freed and, more transcendental still, émigrés’ visits were allowed.

In 2009, some 200,000 émigrés visited Cuba after the [George W. Bush administration] restrictions were lifted.

Subsequently, in other meetings important conceptual definitions were arrived at, such as that the relation with émigrés is necessary and desirable, something that is ratified in the present meeting. There were also migratory changes, such as the travel document that substituted the entry permits.

At this meeting we have been told that any issue that we consider important can be discussed and that there will be breakout groups of interests. I believe that we should discuss in detail the needs of Cuban émigrés.

What are the main needs?

I am not the spokesperson for the émigrés, but I think that Cuba should create better methods of communications with its émigrés. That is difficult, because the only Cuban consulate in the U.S. is in Washington, so some mechanism is necessary.

Among the Cuban community in the U.S. there are thousands who have no health insurance. It would be great if the Cuban government created affordable insurance for those people. If they need treatment in a hospital, it would be better here, near their families, and much more affordable than in the U.S.

There are émigrés who would like to retire and return to Cuba. True, the U.S. government would not allow them to collect their pension if they lived here, but it would be useful if Cuba would accept their right to return.

There are approximately 30,000 people that have asked to return, and some 2,000 that have done so without asking permission from the government.

Some 30,000 émigrés want to return and live in Cuba. Yes, I have heard those numbers mentioned. If there are Cubans that want to return, we should move forward with this. I know that in Cuba nothing of this sort is handled carelessly, therefore slowly, and I am not trying to pressure anyone, but we have to consider it and start searching for solutions. What shouldn’t happen is that all émigrés be treated as exiles.

There are more things, but we need to study of those necessities carefully.

What about the so called “defectors” who left the country illegally?

I think that what defines an émigré is not the manner in which he left the country. I believe that an émigré is someone that defines himself as such and wants to have a normal relation with Cuba, even if he has a different opinion.

All in all, I think that everything that is legitimate should be normal, and it is perfectly legitimate that an émigré who left in search of a higher standard of living should be able to return to his country.

What can be expected of this meeting?

I believe that all important issues are going to be discussed. And I expect to be able to say the same things I have told you.