Cuban emigre meeting under way in Havana

Max Lesnik, a Cuban-American broadcaster who frequently travels to Cuba, is once again in Havana this week – this time covering a key meeting between Cuban émigrés and Cuban government officials. Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque (above) opened the meeting at the Hotel Nacional.

   The event began Wednesday under the auspices of the Cuban foreign ministry, and by 1 p.m. Lesnik was speaking live from Havana with an early report during his Radio Miami show on WOCN 1450 AM.

   “We are speaking from old Havana about the open dialogue in the meeting of the Cuban émigrés from 40 countries in the world,’’ Lesnik said Wednesday on his show.

   Lesnik said that though the ''blockade and terrorism’’ were the chief topics on the agenda of the three-day meeting – also among topics of discussion was the demand by many Cubans to eliminate the requirement to obtain government permission to leave the country.

   “That will be a hot topic for the international news wires,’’ Lesnik predicted.

   Blockade is usually a reference by sympathizers of the Cuban revolution to the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. The reference to terrorism, Lesnik said, was the Cuban complaint of the U.S. inclusion of the island on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

   During Thursday's Radio Miami broadcast from Havana, the program said that the emigre meeting singled out for recognition the Antonio Maceo Brigade. The group largely consists of Cuban-Americans whose parents brought out of Cuba when they were young but who remain supportive of the Cuban revolution.

Radio Miami also identified as yet another participant at the Havana meeting Andres Gomez (let), leader of the Antonio Maceo Brigade. Radio Miami said Gomez told the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina that Cuban emigres like himself oppose "Washington's hostile and aggressive policy'' toward Cuba.

   Agence France Presse reported from Havana that Cuban authorities were considering the possible elimination of the exit permit.

   “It’s a topic under consideration,’’ the agency quoted Perez Roque as saying during a press conference after opening the émigré meeting.

   Granma, the Communist Party daily in Cuba, said 129 émigré delegates were attending the event.

-- Alfonso Chardy

Comments

[J Tepedino]

Max Lesnik,Andres Gomez (leader of the Antonio Maceo Brigade) and their other "friends", don't these guys ever realize that they are supporting a tyrany?
Why did the Cuban Government really call on them? Come on, this is just more of the same propaganda that this guys have been trying to support for 49 years, at the cost of the blood of their brothers! They need to realize that they are getting too old for the same suit. Soon they will also be in the same freezer as the Caballo!