HAVANA, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Cuban government called on Tuesday for a conference with its emigrants "who respect and love Cuba."
"The Cuban government calls for the IV Nation and Emigration Conference as an expression of its clear wish to continue deepening ties with its emigrants," said Ernesto Soberon, director of Consular Affairs and Cubans Residing Overseas at a press conference in Havana.
The conference, scheduled to be held in Havana on April 8-10, 2020, will gather Cuban emigrants who "respect, love, and defend" Cuba and "actively" opposed to the U.S. economic and trade blockade imposed by Washington against Havana since 1962, according to Soberon.
The meeting will have a special meaning for young people born to Cuban parents or grandparents in other countries that "identify themselves with, and defend and love the country of their parents and grandparents," Soberon said.
There are almost four million Cubans now living abroad, about half in the United States and the rest mostly in Europe, especially Spain and Latin America.
There are 166 associations of Cuban emigrants in 79 countries, and in the last six years the island registered three million visits of its emigrants, showing their interest in maintaining links with their homeland, Soberon told reporters.
Fidel Castro, the late Cuban revolutionary leader, held a meeting with Cubans living in the United States and Puerto Rico in 1978, since then his administration has started to take steps to regularize relations with Cubans settling abroad.
Following the idea, the first "Nation and Emigration" Conference was held in 1994, with two more editions in 1995 and 2004.
