Cuba denies U.S. claims about travel permissions

The Cuban Foreign Ministry denied statements by the United States Government on the alleged prohibition of their officials to leave this capital due to "reciprocal travel restrictions" that would force Washington to respond the same way.

Prensa Latina

The Information Section of the United States (USIS) in Havana invariably receives permission to travel outside the capital to visit naturalized U.S. and Cuban prisoners  anywhere in Cuba, Josefina Vidal, Cuban Foreign Minister assured the irector of the United States Counsulate.

As reported in a statement, in recent months, American public servants , including the head of the USIS, had consular access in the provinces of Matanzas, Artemis, Mayabeque, Ciego de Avila and Camaguey, located in the west and center of the island.

"We do not know what you're talking about with reciprocity, because all trip  permissions for consular visits by USIS is authorized without exception," she warned.

This past Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba reported that Washington repeatedly denied them consular access to René González, one of five anti-terrorists convicted in the northern country.

The root of this pronouncement, is a public servant of the State Department alleged to the Spanish agency EFE-on condition of anonymity, such action, and attributed it to the fact that "Cubans do not let us go outside Havana without permission, so we responded with the same restriction here. "

He stressed further that René González can travel to Washington to meet with Cuban civil servants who are responsible for permits.

In this regard, Vidal explained that the U.S. authorities refused on the suspicion of  terrorism recent requests to exit out of the area where he is serving his sentence further, that he is unfairly kept away from his wife. The director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry confirmed the complaint of the impossibility of that since September 2012 René cannot receive consular visits, in violation of the obligations of the United States to the Vienna Convention on this matter.

He was arrested in 1998 along with Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and Ramón Labañino for his involvement in watching  violent groups that organized the Miami plans against the island, as they left almost 3. 400 dead and more than two thousand wounded. In October 2011. After serving his sentence, René was forced to remain in the United States on supervised release for three years, which activists, human rights defenders and lawyers consider an additional punishment.



Translated from the Portuguese version by:

Lisa Karpova
Pravda.Ru

 

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Author`s name Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
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