Recent U.S. media reports that Cuba has decided to open its coastal borders to those who want to leave are ``totally unfounded,'' said an Interior Ministry statement published in the Communist Party daily Granma.
``There is not even the most remote chance that the maritime borders of Cuba will be opened to the United States,'' the statement said.
The reports, it said, ``form part of the sustained and unscrupulous enemy propaganda campaigns, directed to create confusion, provoke illegal exodus.''
The Interior Ministry said the reports were broadcast by the U.S. government's Radio Marti and other media.
The reports appear tied to a recent wave of detentions of Cubans trying to enter the United States.
The Coast Guard detained 272 Cubans found at sea in May, the highest monthly total since 1994. From Friday through Tuesday night, 222 came ashore or were picked up at sea.
When the Cuban government briefly lowered its coastal borders during the summer of 1994, more than 30,000 rafters crossed the Straits of Florida or were picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard and sent to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo in eastern Cuba. At that time, virtually any Cuban who left the communist country was automatically granted legal residency by the U.S. government.
But 1995 accords between Cuban and U.S. authorities changed all that, calling for the repatriation of all illegal Cuban emigrants who are picked up at sea by U.S. vessels or cross into the base at Guantanamo.
In the accords, Cuba vowed to try to halt all illegal departures for the United States. The United States agreed to help legal immigration by granting at least 20,000 U.S. visas to Cuba each year.
The statement also noted a Cuban delegation led by Ricardo Alarcon is in New York this week for talks with their American counterparts on immigration.
In Washington, the United States and Cuba held talks and pleged to take steps to end organized alien smuggling of Cubans into the United States.
``We reviewed out law enforcement efforts to put a stop to this form of criminal activity for profit which needlessly exposes men, women and children to loss of life or serious injury despite the fact that ample alternative means of safe, orderly and legal migration clearly exist,'' State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said.
Smugglers who operate fast boats have been charging $8,000 per person to bring undocumented Cubans to Key West from Cuba.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press