Attached is a translation of a report received from Swiss Ambassador
Masnata in Cuba on an informal meeting he held with Cuban Vice Foreign
Minister Anillo December 20 at the
latter’s request. Anillo told
Masnata the U.S. counter-proposal on hijacking is still under review by
Cuban lawyers and that when this review is completed a formal meeting
will be called. Anillo observed
that the differences between the two sides did not appear to be
insurmountable.
Attachment
AIDE-MEMOIRE
The Cuban Vice-Minister of External Relations Mr. Anillo Capote received the Swiss
Ambassador in Havana on Wednesday, December 20 at 11:30 a.m., in a
very relaxed courteous way, in order to inform him that the American
counter-proposals on the subject of an agreement concerning air and
sea piracy were still being studied.
The lawyers must particularly examine all the implications. As soon
as this study is finished, the Cuban Government will prepare its
reply and call the third meeting.
In answer to the question whether the third meeting could take place
next week, Vice Minister Anillo, not wanting to commit himself, repeated that
the meeting would take place as soon as the Cuban reply is ready. In
this connection, the Swiss Ambassador does not know if the results
of the study which the lawyers are undertaking will first have to be
submitted to the Prime Minister, who is presently in Moscow.
The Vice Minister nevertheless confirmed that a basis for an
arrangement existed and that the differences did not appear
insurmountable.
The Swiss Ambassador having asked whether the Cubans had already made
a decision on the possibility of choosing between the return of a
hijacker and prosecution on the spot, Vice-Minister Anillo replied that this question
fell within the study of the proposal as a whole. The Ambassador
therefore deemed it premature in these circumstances to raise the
question of extradition procedure, with or without reference to the
1904 Treaty.
The Ambassador took advantage of this meeting to stress that the
United States considers the crimes specified in Article 1 of the
American counter-proposal as serious crimes, in spite of the absence
of a minimum penalty, and that moreover
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American legislation mentions only a small
number of crimes for which a minimum penalty is provided.
He also considered it appropriate, at this stage and in view of the
study by the Cuban lawyers, to specify that if the United States had
had to take account of its laws in preparing its counter-proposal,
it did not intend to ask that the Cuban Government modify its own
laws. This declaration visibly caught the attention of Vice Minister
Anillo.
The Ambassador is not in a position to judge whether the delay in the
conversations is really due to the aforementioned legal study or to
other reasons, nor whether the absence of the Prime Minister is
going to bring about an additional delay. There is possibly a
combination of different factors, but the Ambassador has no
particular reason to doubt the bona fides of the Cuban Vice-Minister
of External Relations, who gave the impression of taking the entire
matter seriously and who spoke without passion.
