U.S.-Cuba immigration talks get under way in Havana

Web Posted: 02/19/2010 12:25 CST
U.S.-Cuba immigration talks get under way in Havana
By Paul Haven - Associated Press

HAVANA — U.S. and Cuban diplomats met in Havana on Friday for high-level talks on immigration, but the conversation was sure to turn to stickier issues, including the detention of an American contractor accused of spying.

The negotiations began just after 9 a.m. at an undisclosed location in Havana, said Gloria Berbena, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Interests Section, which Washington maintains here instead of an embassy.

The regularly scheduled talks come at a low point in relations between two Cold War enemies that have been at each other's throats for months about a range of issues, notably the Dec. 3 arrest of Alan P. Gross, a 60-year-old American contractor who was in Cuba on a program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

He has been held without charge at Havana's high-security Villa Marista jail. Cuban President Raul Castro has said the man was spying, and that his presence was evidence that Washington is still trying to overthrow Cuba's government 51 years after the revolution.

The little-known USAID program was begun under President George W. Bush and devotes millions of dollars to the promotion of democracy on the island.

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