``We are in the deadline period,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Alejandro Gonzalez said at a news conference Thursday. ``We are alert to this situation, and our position is clear and irreversible.''
A suit brought by relatives of Cuban-Americans killed when Cuba shot down their private planes over the Florida Straits in 1996 is seeking to garnish the wages U.S. phone companies have paid to their Cuban counterpart, ETECSA. The U.S. government is fighting against the lawsuit.
Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon warned last month that a successful effort to garnish Cuba's share of revenue from calls between the two countries would threaten the service used by Cuban-Americans to call relatives here.
He said Cuba could not provide the phone service if it received no revenue.
Four members of the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue were killed when Cuban MiGs shot down two planes on Feb. 24, 1996. Three were U.S. citizens.
In 1997, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King awarded a $187 million judgment to the relatives, and they have tried to collect the money from Cuba's communist government.
The relatives first went after tens of millions of dollars in Cuban assets in the United States that have been frozen by the State Department since the 1960s, but they ran into opposition from the State and Treasury departments.
They then turned to the money U.S. telephone companies pay Cuba's ETECSA phone company as Havana's share of the payments for long-distance calls from the United States to Cuba. That amounted to an estimated $60 million to $70 million in 1997.
In a 17-page statement, Justice Department lawyers said the U.S. trade embargo bans any financial dealings with Cuba, including garnishments, unless specifically licensed by Washington.
They also argued that ETECSA, a joint venture between the government and an Italian company, is an independent company and cannot be affected by the lawsuit against the Cuban government.
Also Thursday, the Cuban government said it will work to ensure the success of a gathering here this month of Roman Catholic bishops from around Latin America, the United States and Canada.
``Cuban officials are committed to providing everything necessary to ensure that it turns out well,'' Gonzalez said.
Five cardinals and 20 bishops will gather Feb. 14-17 to celebrate the first anniversary of Pope John Paul II's historic visit to the communist nation. They will also discuss ways to improve ties between churches in Latin and North America.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press