Both parties seek to collaborate more in the exchange of information about fugitives and establish real-time communication between their border police
14ymedio, Havana, 18 April 2024 — Havana wants to tie up the loose ends of the migration issue with Washington, fine-tune the process of intercepting rafters in the Florida Straits, facilitate cooperation over crime, and create a “real-time” communication system between the border police of Cuba and the United States. These were some of the issues that, this Wednesday, the delegations of both countries discussed during the round of talks held in the U.S. capital. An official of the State Department told Martí Noticias, on condition of anonymity, that these issues – to which the statement of the Cuban Foreign Ministry on the meeting does not specifically refer – point above all to the legal sphere and immigration fraud.
“The effective cooperation in criminal matters can sometimes include exchange, such as information about fugitives and other wanted people, or real-time communication between the United States Coast Guard and the Cuban Border Guard to detect people smugglers or drug traffickers,” the official explained.
These are “routine discussions,” but they are aimed at strengthening the collaboration between Havana and Washington, although the Cuban side declares that the United States refuses to talk about what really interests them: the embargo, to which it attributes the causes of the immigration stampede.
The U.S. delegation was also interested, says the official, in the security of Washington diplomats in the Cuban capital
The U.S. delegation was also interested, says the official, in the security of Washington’s diplomats in the Cuban capital. “Establishing and increasing channels of police cooperation to better address transnational threats is not at the expense of promoting respect for human rights,” he concluded.
In a press release about the talks, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Deput