Cuba began a historic dialogue Friday with the exiles it once scorned, promising to improve ties between the communist state and Cubans abroad and suggesting it might change its citizenship laws.
In opening the conference, Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina praised the 210 Cuban exiles taking part for their "maturity, strength, (and) independence."The meeting brought together top government officials, Cubans who once took up arms against Fidel Castro's government and other exiles who have long favored a less hostile stance toward their Caribbean island homeland.
Robaina promised to examine ways to normalize relations between Cuba and the exiles and to increase family and social interchanges between those on the island and those abroad.
Parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon indicated during a closed session of the meeting that changes in the citizenship law may be brought up in the next session of parliament, conference spokesman Manuel Alfonso reported.
Cuba's citizenship law considers all exiles to be Cuban citizens who must travel to the island on a Cuban passport. But it treats them as suspect foreigners when granting them visas, sometimes requiring months of waiting.
Delegates have suggested simpler visa procedures as a first step toward improving relations with Cubans abroad.
Castro's government hopes overtures to the exiles will help end the 34-year-old U.S. embargo of Cuba. Opposition to the embargo was the only political requirement Cuba placed on those attending the meeting. Participants include 156 exiles from the United States.
That requirement left out many of the most powerful Cuban-American groups, which remain fiercely opposed to any dealings with Castro's government.
Still, the meeting in Havana's Palace of Conventions brought together party functionaries and longtime foes of communism, who sipped coffee from plastic cups and swapped jokes.
Exiles saw the meeting as the start of a new era in relations.
"I think the fact that it (the government) permits a group of us to start to participate in this discussion is important in itself," said Nelson Valdes, a political science professor from the University of New Mexico.
"I have a lot of optimism," said Luis Tornes, 70, a veteran of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion meant to topple Castro. "It is the beginning of a process . . . which I believe will be very long."
Cuba has increasingly looked to the estimated 1 million Cubans abroad as a source of potential aid for a society struggling with the economic impact of the collapse of the former Soviet bloc.
The hard times have forced most cars off the streets and Cubans have turned to bicycles. But reforms adopted last year, allowing Cubans to pay for goods and gasoline in dollars, have increased traffic from a year ago.