Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 5, 1994 TAG: 9409070045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
``The differences are significant,'' David Johnson, spokesman for the U.S. delegation, said after three hours of talks at the U.S. mission to the United Nations. Talks were scheduled to resume today at Cuba's U.N. mission.
Johnson said Cuba delivered a draft proposal to U.S. negotiators. But, he added: ``There are substantial gaps between us and I would caution against any premature speculation that an agreement is going to be reached.''
The Cuban side did not comment. Cuba has been urging talks on easing the crippling U.S. economic embargo of the communist island, which it says has caused widespread hardship and the refugee exodus.
The United States insists migration is separate and refuses to discuss lifting or easing the 32-year-old embargo. It says Cuba must implement democratic reforms first.
Meanwhile, Panama gave permission Sunday for the United States to begin flying in the first of up to 10,000 Cuban refugees now detained at a U.S. naval base in Cuba.
The agreement gives the Clinton administration its first third-country detention center to house the refugees and ease crowding at the Guantanamo Bay base, where more than 20,000 Cubans are being held.
Other Caribbean and Latin American nations - including Costa Rica, Honduras, Venezuela and Mexico - have offered to accept Cubans. Panama is the first to reach a formal agreement with the United States.
The first flights from Guantanamo to Howard Air Base in Panama could begin as early as today, depending on logistics, military officials said.
In New York, about 200 peaceful demonstrators stood outside the U.S. mission Sunday, across the street from the United Nations. Security was tight.
The demonstrators chanted ``Freedom for Cuba'' and held signs urging President Clinton to take a hard line against Cuban President Fidel Castro. One man held a sign that said, ``President Clinton, Show Fidel You Wear Pants.''
``If Fidel doesn't respect borders, neither should Clinton,'' said Nilo Jerez, 56, of Miami, who advocated an invasion of Cuba. Jerez said he came to the United States in 1978 after spending almost 20 years in Cuban prisons.
The United States wants to expand legal Cuban immigration, perhaps to around 20,000, in exchange for Castro's promise to end the refugee exodus.
Cuba's chief delegate, former Foreign Minister Ricardo Alarcon, told The New York Times in an interview published Sunday that the U.S. offer to admit as many as 20,000 Cubans a year was inadequate.
``To find a real solution you have to deal with the causes of the emigration, and that remains the economic embargo,'' he said. ``The other side has refused to talk about the embargo.''
Alarcon told the Times the United States should admit, perhaps for one year, all Cubans who want to emigrate to the United States. About 134,000 Cubans applied for visas last year.
by CNB