Statement from
Josefina Vidal, U.S. director at the Cuban Foreign
Ministry
IN the context of the publication of
the February 27 MINREX statement, referring to a new
outrage against one of the Five, a State Department
official, who asked not to be named, gave a
statement to the EFE news agency.
A cable from EFE, datelined February
28, noted that the U.S. admitted that it has denied
consular visits to René González, due to "reciprocal
travel restrictions." In the report, headlined "U.S:
Consular visits to Cuban René González denied for
reasons of reciprocity," the agency quotes a non-identified
State Department official who stated, "Both the U.S.
Interests Section in Havana and the Cuban Interests
Section in Washington are subject to reciprocal
travel restrictions."
"The Cubans are not letting us
travel outside of Havana without previous
authorization and so we are responding with the same
restriction here."
"The problem is that the (Cuban)
Interests Section cannot travel outside of
Washington, and González is in Florida," he added. "If
they let us travel outside of Havana, their
officials can travel to see him."
The Spanish agency also added that,
according to the State Department, González can
travel to Washington to meet with Cuban officials,
if those responsible for his supervised release
allow him to travel there.
Responding to these statements from
the State Department, the director of the United
States Department at the Cuban Foreign Ministry
stated:
"The United States Interests Section
(USIS) in Havana invariably receives travel permits
for outside of the capital in order to visit
American prisoners and Cubans naturalized in the
United States who are serving prison terms in any
part of Cuba. In recent months, United States
officials, including the USIS director himself, have
had consular access in the provinces of Matanzas,
Camagüey, Ciego de Avila, Artemisa and Mayabeque. We
do not know what reciprocity he is talking about, as
all travel permits for USIS consular visits have
been authorized without exception. However,
beginning September 2012, the State Department has
denied all applications to visit René González
presented by consular officials at the Cuban
Interests Section in Washington, in open violation
of its obligations to the Vienna Convention on
Consular Relations. The United States authorities
have also denied René’s recent applications for
permits to travel outside of the area in which he is
serving his additional sentence of supervised
release, which is keeping him unjustly distanced
from his wife, who is not permitted to visit him."
Havana, February 28, 2013
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MIAMI
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