URUGUAY UNENTHUSIASTIC ON RESETTLEMENT OF CUBAN

,C O N F I D E N T I A L MONTEVIDEO 000468 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT ALSO FOR WHA/BSC AND PRM/POP (RGEHRING) E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/26/2016 TAGS: PREF SMIG CU UY SUBJECT: URUGUAY UNENTHUSIASTIC ON RESETTLEMENT OF CUBAN AND HAITIAN MIGRANTS REF: STATE 78762 Classified By: Charge D'Affaires James D. Nealon for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) (C) On May 22 and 24, PolCouns discussed reftel talking points concerning the need to resettle Cuban and Haitian migrants housed at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo with the MFA's acting Director General for Political Affairs Alvaro Gallardo. Gallardo said that while the GOU is generally sympathetic to humanitarian requests, consultations with his MFA colleagues on this subject revealed a uniformly negative reaction to the notion of accepting Guantanamo refugees. He said his colleagues recalled an embarrassing 1999 incident in which a half-dozen Cuban migrants had chained themselves in protest over being sent to Uruguay. He added that his colleagues also asserted that Cuban and Haitian migrants were particularly problematic ""because they invariably sought to eventually emigrate to the U.S."" Gallardo offered to discuss the matter further at a lunch planned for May 30, but was clearly pessemistic about the prospects of settling Guantanamo-based Cubans or Haitians migrants in Uruguay. Nealon