CUBA NEWS
November 11, 2003

CUBA NEWS The Miami Herald 5wx6w

Cuba: U.S. inflated cases of visa denials

HAVANA - (AP) -- Cuba on Monday accused the U.S. government of sharply inflating a list of Cubans denied permission to emigrate to the United States.

The Cuban government acknowledged that 196 Cubans had been barred from leaving the socialist island on U.S. visas, but it said a U.S. list of 636 such cases was riddled with inaccuracies.

Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Relations said that the number blocked was only about 1 percent of those who have emigrated and it said refusal to let them emigrate was based on Cuban law.

U.S. officials, meanwhile, said the names are part of a running list that goes back at least three years of people whose cases have been brought to their attention. Cuban authorities have not provided a response on U.S. inquiries of the pending cases, and unless migrants inform authorities at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana of their departure, there is no way of knowing if exit permits were issued.

''We ittedly have imperfect information,'' said a State Department official. "They hide the real facts and then get on their high horse.''

Under 1994 and 1995 agreements meant to discourage risky departures, the United States agreed to accept at least 20,000 Cuban immigrants a year and Cuba agreed not to punish those who were returned after making illegal attempts to migrate.

Cuba says U.S. firms won sales race at its fair

HAVANA - U.S. companies took the largest share of sales contracts signed at the just-concluded Havana International Fair, the Cuban government announced on Monday.

The government purchasing company Alimport said in a news release that it had signed contracts worth $164.9 million during the fair that concluded on Sunday. Thirty-six of the 47 companies that won deals were from the United States.

Sales with U.S. companies started in late 2001 after the U.S. Congress eased embargo restrictions.

Among the deals signed Friday and Saturday were $18.6 million worth of soybeans, soy oil, soy flour and corn from Archer Daniels Midland () of Decatur, Illinois, and three chicken deals: for $4 million with Louis Dreyfus Group, $2.7 million with Tyson Foods (TSN) of Springdale, Ark., and $1.35 million deal with AJC International of Atlanta.

Cuba had earlier signed chicken deals for another $3.1 million from Tyson and $1.8 million from Dreyfus.

Smaller contracts went to companies such as Dean Foods of Dallas, Texas, ($162,470 worth of coffee creamer), Langdale International Trading of Valdosta, Ga., ($135,000 worth of wood), Adams of New Jersey ($163,300 worth of chewing gum) and Conagra Foods of Illinois ($76,200 in meat products).

Cuba's attention to the U.S. companies was heightened because of a drop in European attendance. The European Union has reduced s with Cuba, largely to protest the jailing earlier this year of 75 dissidents.



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