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CUBA COOPERATES WITH U.S. ON PRISONER TRANSFER TO GUANTANAMO NAVAL BASE.

Article Excerpt
A surprise move by the Cuban government to cooperate with the US in its transfer of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners to the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay has led to speculation that a thaw in bilateral relations in underway. Though the State Department has denied there will be any change in its Cuba policy, some Cuban-exile groups are suspicious that a secret deal has been struck by the two countries that could lead to lifting the embargo.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced on Dec. 27 a Pentagon plan to send the prisoners to the Guantanamo base. The base, located on Cuban's southeast coast, has been leased from Cuba since 1903.

The announcement was first met with silence from the upper levels of the Cuban government. Foreign journalists precipitously wrote reports assuming that Cuba would object to the plan since the base represents a century-old remnant of the US military occupation of Cuba after the War of 1898. Agence France-Presse reported that President Fidel Castro would "protest and denounce the measure." Reuters reported that Cuba opposed the plan, and supported the view with comments from Cubans on the street and taxi drivers, who saw the plan as defiance of Cuban sovereignty.

Officials interviewed by the foreign media, such as Higher Education Minister Fernando Vecino Alegret and Attorney General Juan Escalona, also expressed personal opposition to the Pentagon plan.

But on Dec. 29, the Cuban Foreign Relations Ministry released a statement that said, "Taking into...