Bahamas News

Bahamian Ambassador Joshua Sears hopes to meet again with Cuban-American Congress members in Washington this week to discuss the alleged “mistreatment” of detained Cubans.

The proposed meeting would come as a follow-up to an earlier conference between Ambassador Sears, Congress member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and father and son duo Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart. The American officials had expressed concern for Cubans held at The Carmichael Road Detention Centre.

“We understand their political posture in addressing what they perceive to be an issue from their constituent interest,” said Ambassador Sears.

He added that he has kept in constant contact with the Cuban-American members of Congress on the matter.

But Congress member Ros-Lehtinen’s press office neither confirmed nor denied that she would be meeting with Ambassador Sears this week. In recent weeks the Congresswoman has been vocal about what she called the “mistreatment” of Cuban detainees.

Congress member Ros-Lehtinen along with Congressman Connie Mack last week threatened to table a motion for economic sanctions against The Bahamas. The sanctions were proposed in a bid to gain the release of two Cuban dentists detained in Nassau. But in a recently issued press statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cautioned members of the South Florida community.

“With respect to the question of boycotts and other forms of economic pressure on The Bahamas, wiser counsel would suggest that it is not in the best interest of the communities in South Florida, to adversely affect and impact the economy of The Bahamas, having regard to the mutually important bilateral relationship between us,” it stated.

The Foreign Affairs statement added that while it pledges to resolve the matter, it cannot place itself in the middle of the ongoing battle between the Cuban and American governments.

“The Bahamas reaffirms its commitment to the good relations we now enjoy with the United States and all our other neighbours,” it read. “The Bahamas, however, cannot be drawn into the rhetorical war of words between members of the legislative branch in the United States and the Cuban Government on migration issues, which arise between certain communities in the US and Cuba.”

The detained Cuban dentists, who won a US immigration lottery in 2002, fled their homeland last April in an attempt to be reunited with their families in America. Such dentists were picked up by a US Coast Guard Cutter off Bimini and handed over to Bahamian officials.

Their plight coupled with the alleged beating of a Miami-based WLTV-Univisión 23 reporter, Mario Vallejo, while he was interviewing detained Cuban migrants at The Detention Centre, has sparked criticisms of the way The Bahamas has handled the incident.

Three weeks ago, Cuban exile groups marched outside The Bahamas Consulate in downtown Miami, in protest of tourism to The Bahamas.