MIAMI _ Cuba will allow U.S. air marshals on regularly scheduled commercial flights between the two countries, island authorities announced Friday.
Josefina Vidal, director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry's department for the United States, posted on her Twitter account that an "arrangement on the deployment of Air Marshalls on board airlines was amended to make it applicable to scheduled flights."
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confirmed the agreement in a statement Friday.
"With regard to Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) coverage on flights to/from Cuba, TSA has an arrangement in place for charter and scheduled commercial flights," the statement said. "As a general matter, to protect the operations and efficacy of our Federal Air Marshal program, TSA does not provide specific information about when or which flights are covered by our air marshals, as that could potentially compromise security."
The twin announcements eliminate a confrontation between the Obama Administration and members of Congress over the security of flights to and from Cuba.
The TSA admitted in mid-September that no federal air marshals were aboard the regularly scheduled commercial flights to Cuba that started in late August. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fl., and other Congress members quickly accused the Obama administration of lying because TSA officials had declared earlier that a bilateral agreement for the air marshals would be in place by the time the flights started.
As the controversy continued, the House Committee on Homeland Security approved a measure to suspend the regular flights until the TSA certified that Cuban airports met all security requirements. The measure was submitted by Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., chairman of the subcommittee on transportation security.
Cuba's Foreign Ministry also announced that representatives of the two countries had met in Washington Wednesday to discuss "the security of the flow of people and goods between the two countries, and mutual concerns about cybersecurity."
Officials from the Cuban Ministries of the Interior and Transportation as well as the Customs Department took part in the meeting, along with U.S. officials from the Departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security,
Representatives of both government also gathered in Washington Friday for the fourth round of meetings of the Bilateral Commission, to review progress on issues of "shared priority" such as cooperation on commercial flights, public health and the fight against drug trafficking.
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