Keep ban on travel to Cuba

The Miami Herald / www.cubacenter.org ^ | Mon, Nov. 03, 2003 | FRANK CALZON

[The Bronze Titan]

Afew weeks ago, Cuba's communist dictator Fidel Castro prohibited human-rights leader Oswaldo Payá from traveling to Germany to speak about the human-rights situation in Cuba.

Payá responded by sending a message to the international community: ``We have never supported [Cuba's] isolation, but at this late date, it is an insult to be told that foreign tourism and investment can lead to an opening in Cuba. Cultural exchanges in Cuba take place under rules set up by a government that in a true apartheid manner excludes, exploits and humiliates the Cuban people. Even if it is not their intention, those who take part in such exchanges help to maintain a government that denies all rights.''

Imagine the despair and sense of betrayal that Payá in Havana and the political dissidents imprisoned in Castro's dungeons for their efforts to promote democracy will feel as they learn of the recent votes in the U.S. House and Senate prohibiting enforcement of the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba. Adding insult to injury, the prohibition was attached to a bill that finances much of the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign and in total disregard of the State Department's listing of Castro's Cuba as a sponsor of international terrorism.

President Bush has said that he will veto any legislation that weakens U.S. sanctions against Havana. He recently called for more aggressive enforcement of the travel ban, noting that tourist dollars help prop up Castro's repressive regime.

A House-Senate conference committee is now trying to reconcile differences in the appropriations bill involved. In Washington, some say there is little chance that the conference committee will drop the prohibition and that Bush won't veto an appropriations bill that finances many projects for which members of Congress want to claim credit in next year's election campaigns.

The attached amendments do not abrogate the travel ban. As ex- plained by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., they simply state, ''The Office of Foreign Asset Control shall not use funds in this bill to enforce the travel ban with respect to Cuba.'' Attaching do-not-spend amendments to appropriation bills is a slovenly way of legislating that, as U.S. Rep. Robert Menéndez, D-N.J., puts it, invite lawlessness.

A haven for U.S. fugitives

The right of Americans to travel to Cuba must be weighed against the wisdom and risk of subsidizing an openly venomous, anti-American regime. Not only does Cuba have a record of supporting international terrorists; it currently provides a haven for more than 70 fugitives from U.S. justice.

Those promoting American tourism to Cuba suggest that it will promote democracy and break down cultural barriers. But Cubans already are fans of American culture and democracy, and tourists have little opportunity to mingle with ordinary Cubans. That's because the Castro government sets aside hotels, beaches, restaurants and hospitals for foreigners. It prohibits Cubans from patronizing facilities reserved for tourists. Under such conditions, the money that tourists spend goes directly to government coffers to support the internal apartheid that the regime imposes.

The sex trade is a nefarious exception that, according to a March 2002 report by researchers at John Hopkins University, has seen Canadian and American tourists contribute ''to a sharp increase in child prostitution and in the exploitation of women in Cuba.'' Bush has denounced this sex trade as ``a modern form of slavery that is encouraged by the Cuban government. This cruel exploitation of innocent women and children must be exposed and must be ended.''

Don't help Castro regime

After a recent Senate vote, the White House reaffirmed the president's view that the travel ban is ''vitally important'' and that ''lifting the sanctions now would provide a helping hand to a desperate and repressive regime.'' A president is only as good as his word. Neither the House nor the Senate has sufficient votes to override a Bush veto. If the bill that emerges from the House-Senate conference committee still includes amendments prohibiting enforcement of the travel ban, it would be to Bush's credit to issue his first veto.

Frank Calzón is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington, D.C.

[The Bronze Titan]

- "We have never supported [Cuba's] isolation, but at this late date, it is an insult to be told that foreign tourism and investment can lead to an opening in Cuba. Cultural exchanges in Cuba take place under rules set up by a government that in a true apartheid manner excludes, exploits and humiliates the Cuban people. Even if it is not their intention, those who take part in such exchanges help to maintain a government that denies all rights.''

[Callahan]

I support one way travel to Cuba for all Hollywood Libs, commie symps and Democratic Presidential Candidates.

[The Bronze Titan]

Now there's an idea, so let's make this more to our benefit. They should pass a provision to the 'open travel to Cuba' bill requiring all travelers and tourists to take with them to Cuba "Freedom Literature" to pass out to Cubans and inform them how much better their life would be if they had their own "Freedom, Liberty, and Democracy".

After all, isn't this ("the tourists will set you free") what will happen in Cuba if we open up travel?

[The Bronze Titan]

You know, Castro has always managed to take a bad situation (for him) and turn it around to his benefit - always!

- the 1980 embassy revolt (10,000 cubans broke into a foreign embassy grounds in Cuba demanding assylum) causing a potentially regime-shaking national unrest. So, Castro declared a '3 day open season' for anyone wanting to leave the country to go the the port of Mariel and leave. That's when he cleaned out his jails of common criminals, the insane, and sent them on to the U.S. (along with more than a few spies).

- after the Soviet collapse abd his loss of subsidies, he decided to 'open up' joint ventures with European tourism and travel developers to build (aparthaid) hotels in Cuba's 'gold coast' (Varadero), where only foreigners can go, but no regular Cuban citizens can visit or stay.

THIS IS THE KIND OF COUNTRY our Congressmen would like for us to patronize and subsidize with our American dollars.

[Qwinn]

"They should pass a provision to the 'open travel to Cuba' bill requiring all travelers and tourists to take with them to Cuba "Freedom Literature" to pass out to Cubans and inform them how much better their life would be if they had their own "Freedom, Liberty, and Democracy"."

Erm, this would make sense if it was the Cuban people who needed convincing. Believe me, they know all about freedom and they want it. They just have no choice.

If the Cuban people liked Castro, don't you think he'd allow elections?

My preferences:

1. Liberate Cuba
2. Maintain the embargo

Lifting the embargo before liberating Cuba is not an option. If we do, we will be complicit in propping up that horrific regime.

Qwinn

[daviddennis]

I visited Cuba in late 2002.

The Cuban people are quite aware of the advantages of freedom, since they lack it. Some of them have American satellite TV, and it's certainly very revealing to see how much they eat up the advertisements for products unattainable in a Cuban's wildest dreams.

Can you imagine looking at ads for Mercedes-Benz, and Audis and BMWs and knowing that only tourists and cabdrivers can afford them? It happens there.

That being said, both cigarettes and alcohol are remarkably cheap. Food, on the other hand, is both awful and horribly expensive.

It was an amazing trip. I loved Cuba, but then again, I stayed in a casa with a wonderful Cuban family who treated me like a king. Don't stay in the tourist hotels; they know how to make 'em look plush, but somehow they have not quite mastered the idea of service.

In fact, the Cuban government's idea of support for tourists is all gloss and no substance. Everything tourists see in Cuba looks good, but what's underneath isn't pretty.

Even though I defied the ban, now that I've seen what it's like and noticed the consequences, I have to marginally support it. The Cuban people are wonderful and don't deserve the privations they have suffered. But Castro has been on more foreign adventures than ever since tourism became an important part of his economy. And he's recently become much more repressive. The tourism money goes straight to maintaining the gulag, and once you see that fact up close, you feel very uneasy about returning to Cuba.

My Cuban friends sent me an email asking when I'd be back ... what should I tell them, I wonder? I don't want to get them into trouble by saying the truth: "I love you but I don't want to support Castro".

D

[The Bronze Titan]

Thank you for sharing your experience and opinion. Yours is a most revealing and perceptive insight.

The ban will keep dollars out of the Cuban security and military coffers (who are the majority shareholders in the tourist holdings in Cuba).

What we need to do is go way beyond the embargo effort, and enlist high-visibility and high-profile individuals to promote a complete WORLDWIDE BAN in trade with the CUBAN GOVERNMENT, until democracy and liberty for the Cuban people are attained. Much like what was done with South Africa. Completely undertake a high visibility "SHAME YOU" campaign worldwide for anyone any country dealing with Cuba, at any economic or travel level.

The Castro government has so much going against it now, with all the repression of dissidents, journalists, regular citizens, aparthaid policies against their own citizens in being able to partake in their own country's tourist hotels, etc..., that this should be an easy undertaking.

THIS IS WHAT THE BUSH ADMINSTRATION SHOULD BE DOING.

[Iowa Granny]

Your experience is very similar to that of a friend of mine, who has just returned. I had dinner with him last night, and he was full of stories.

[The Bronze Titan]

-"Your experience is very similar to that of a friend of mine, who has just returned. I had dinner with him last night, and he was full of stories.

It would be great if you could share some of those stories here with us, or express your thoughts concerning the stories you heard from your friend.

[The Bronze Titan]

"...my investment in Cuba would directly subsidize the oppression of the Cuban People..."
-Donald Trump, "A Choice for Human Rights", The Miami Herald, June 25, 1999

[The Bronze Titan]

- "I am not a communist and neither is the revolutionary movement."
-Fidel Castro, 1959

- "I am a Marxist Leninist and I will be one until the last day of my life."
-Fidel Castro, 1961

[Iowa Granny]

There were lots of stories about oppression. Also about Wine, Women & Song. Well,,,, maybe not so much about singing. This fella loves to brag. I won't do him the honor or repeating 'those' tales.

Cuban cigars, strong whiskey,, OH,,, I think you get the picture.

[The Bronze Titan]

Well, it's the same picture being seen by almost all going to Cuba now, so no surprise there. I suppose you have to see it to believe it.

[daviddennis]

I'm torn, because in all honesty I would love to go back and see my friends again. As you know, the forces of political correctness, here and - especially - in Europe are lined up on Cuba's side. To be honest, I don't think we have a chance against them. They seem to be entirely impervious to any form of fact.

Look at how they lined up against Saddam, despite exceptionally clear evidence of what kind of man he is. Castro's not a nice guy, and I wouldn't want to live in his country, but he's no Saddam.

If it's any consolation, those who take packaged tours of Cuba tend to come back unhappy, thanks to terrible service and abysmal food at high prices. The Cuban government has the greed of Disney without the competence that makes you happy to take it. (When it's Disney, that is).

I never saw any smiles on a tour bus. Despite being in $100,000 plus busses in a country where that's an unimanaginable luxury, they looked like prisoners. And when I was on my way back, I met someone who had taken the full tour. He looked horribly pained and discouraged.

"How was your vacation?" I asked.

"Ok," he said, with the air of someone entirely fed up.

I'll relate one experience to give you the flavour. I was just off the plane, having suffered from a particularly stern interrogation at Immigration. I was holding a certificate valid for free transportation to my hotel. I dodged the thousands of touts screaming "TAXI!" "Taxi, sir?" "TAXI!!" and climbed on to the waiting bus, at 6:30pm, ready to begin my Cuban adventure!

The bus was about half full, and everyone was chatting with the guide, a very nice young woman who I thought was doing her best to give her form of good service. I didn't know much Spanish, but everyone else was Mexican, so my language needs were comprehensibly ignored. That might be forgivable since I was the only person on the bus with that problem.

Around 8:00, I finally broke through all the volubility and asked when the bus was going to leave.

"When it's full," said the guide.

It finally left at 8:30 and I got to my hotel around 9:00.

If you stay with Cubans, Cuba's a wonderful place. If you stay in tourist hotels, it's nasty, brutish and short. Those who play by the Cuban government's rules drop a lot of money, but don't come back. Fidel has a lot to learn about capitalism.

But you get the feeling he doesn't want to.

D

[The Bronze Titan]

What a frank and honest report on your experience. It pretty much hits it correctly. The Cuban government 'wants' the fruits of capitalism, but their ideological reluctance and lack of honest efforts renders their whole economic and ground-level exercise a complete fraud on themselves, the customers (tourists), and the Cuban people.

Were you able to get any sense of how the entire dissident movement was playing on the general population?

[daviddennis]

I found that Cubans were surprisingly open in their discussion of Castro. It was nothing like you might expect in Iraq, where criticising Saddam would be fatal. Nobody I met supported or defended Fidel. Most seemed to be looking forward to his death, when they could work to rebuild their country.

I didn't ask about the dissident movement, partially because I wasn't as well informed about it as I am now, after the arrests. I felt that the arrests, while surely not as brutal as Saddam, went way past what I could accept in a civilized country, and it is that combined with Castro's support of Hugo Chavez which makes me feel the embargo and tourism ban is justified.

You might find a book called Culture Shock: Cuba of interest, if only because of the giant "BARF ALERT!" that should have been prominently placed on the cover. They use every excuse in the book to declare Cuba a workers' paradise, even though anyone going in with open eyes is going to realize otherwise very quickly. What are those people smoking? I was partially taken in by it before I went +

I planned to write a report on my experience, but I only did bits and pieces of it.

Here are some you might like:

The Fabulous Ruins of Cuba, otherwise known as the state of Cuban housing.

Cuban Capitalism, featuring locally-grown products.

Have you ever driven a Soviet car? I've ridden in one, and, well, that's enough.

Cubans suffer through Cuban State TV if they don't have a satellite dish and Univision. My cuban girl(*) just loved her Univision. I just found it more than a little bizarre, with the non-stop advertisements for products Cubans could only dream of.

D