Havana, May 6 (Prensa Latina) Four United States Representatives agreed in this capital that conditions are ready to advance to direct and unconditional negotiations between the U.S. and Cuba which allow normalization of ties. After a dialogue with United States and Cuban officials, the members of Congress argued there exists willingness from both parts to sit down to talk on any issue, with clarity and a climate of mutual respect.
The group of Representatives, all from the Democrat Party, is formed by Barbara Lee and Sam Farr, both legislators for California, as well as Emmanuel Cleaver (Missouri) and Gregory W. Meeks (New York).
During a press round at the Hotel Saratoga, the Congress members highlighted that their visit seeks to support possible negotiations for the excarceration of U.S. citizen Alan Gross,l as well as the three Cuban antiterrorists, unjustly condemned to long sentences in North American jails.
Gross, subcontractor of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was detained, tried and sanctioned in 2009 for violating Cuban laws, by establishing
illegal and covert communication systems by using non commercial technology. Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino and Antonio Guerrero, members of the world-known Cuban Fiove, who are in prison since 1998 after a biased trial in Miami. Lawyers and civil rights defense organizations denounced the latter.
Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez, already home in this country after serving their full sentences, formed part of those who monitored the plans of violent groups and individuals which from south Florida and with total impunity have carried out terrorist actions against the Cuban people.
Last April 9, Cuba reiterated its willingness to find an acceptable solution to both parts which implies humanitarian worries about Gross and the three Cubans who continue to be unjustly incarcerated in the United States for more than 15 years, indicated a note of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations (Minrex).
Congresswoman Lee assured they pretend to use the experience of several visits and contacts with Cuban reality
and from their stances, in different committees of the House of Representatives, promote the dialogue between Washington and Havana.
We wish to advance in the elimination of travel restrictions for U.S. citizens to Cuba and the lifting of the blockade, she stressed.
Representative Cleaver, on his part, deplored recent actions carried out by his government, as the illegal programn to create a Cuban Twitter and the inclusion of Cuba in the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, rejected by Havana.
Such actions conspire against the environment of confidence necessary to boost negotiations, he admitted, but we are precisely here to try that communication be as clear as possible and achieve understandings between both parts, underlined the legislator for Missouri.
