Free Trade Won't Free Cuba

This article orginally posted by: TastyManatees
under "ree Trade Won't Free Cuba" here

HAVANA — According to our state television, the Castro regime was pleased that the United States Senate passed an amendment easing restrictions on American citizens traveling to Cuba. This was no surprise. Just days before the vote, Fidel Castro met here with a group of American travel agents. Both sides are impatient to make business deals in tourism on our island. But how much this would really benefit Cubans outside the top Communist Party leadership remains to be seen.

Democratic dissidents here are divided on the travel ban and the American trade embargo. But there is unanimity that the Cuban government does not deserve any sort of reward now, just half a year after it carried out the worst crackdown on the opposition in decades — the arrest of 75 dissidents, who were quickly given prison terms of up to 28 years.

Of course, American lawmakers have the right to defend the freedom of movement for their citizens, and American farmers understandably want to sell agricultural products to whomever they wish. But the assertion by lawmakers that they want to lift the obstacles to travel and trade for the good of average Cubans rings false.

"Unilateral sanctions stop not just the flow of goods, but the flow of ideas," said Senator Michael Enzi of Wyoming, a sponsor of the bill. "Ideas of freedom and democracy are the keys to positive change in any nation." The problem is that when it comes to Cuba, the flow of ideas, not to mention people, is hardly free. Sharing ideas can land you in jail, and one has to ask the government for a permit to travel abroad — and if you are a dissident, the chances of getting one are almost zero. My husband, Osvaldo Alfonso Valdes, has always been denied travel because he has headed the Democratic Liberal Party of Cuba.

In addition, freedom to trade with the United States is a privilege reserved for those who belong to the Communist Party nomenklatura. Merely selling newspapers in the streets or refilling cigarette lighters without a permit can get you arrested and fined.

My husband's party's platform calls for freedom of movement and free markets. For the next 18 years, however, my husband's movement will be reduced to the two square yards of his cell in the high-security prison at Guanajay. He was one of the first of the 75 dissidents detained in March, just weeks after he had met with Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota and his family in Havana to talk about the Liberal Party and about the chances of freedom and democracy in Cuba. The next day my husband met with staff aides to six other senators, including Mr. Enzi. Two other Cubans at these meetings were also condemned: Oscar Espinosa Chepe, an economist, to 20 years and Hector Palacios, founder of the Democratic Solidarity Party, to 25 years.

Senator Conrad is not the only American politician to have shown an interest in Cuba. In April, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa came to promote agricultural products from his state. Senator Max Baucus came in September with farm leaders from Montana; Senator Evan Bayh came last month to sign food accords advancing the agricultural interests of Indiana.

Of course, all these senators voted in favor of easing the travel restrictions. Could they not see the irony in that meeting with Senator Conrad and with the Senate staffers were central accusations against many dissidents, because talking to American officials can be considered an "act against the security and the territorial integrity of the state"?

I understand that now the Senate amendment (and an identical House measure passed long before) will probably be sent to President Bush for his signature. Mr. Bush wants the travel ban to stay, but if he vetoes the bill he would go against the majority of his own party. I can only hope that in their deliberations, Mr. Bush, Congressional lawmakers and the farmers they represent will consider the "freedom of movement" I and the other wives of Cuban political prisoners will enjoy for years to come: traveling every three months to spend just two hours with our husbands.

Claudia Márquez Linares is vice president of the Manuel Márquez Sterling Society, a journalists' group. This article was translated by the Times from Spanish.

I would not have a problem with those who would want to travel to Cuba merely for the 'pleasure seeking' of patronizing Castro's tourist hotels, anymore than African-Americans and others who had 'issues' with anyone who patronized the aparthaid government of South Africa.

...let us not forget WHAT is being SUBSIDIZED with the tourist profits...

José Luis García Paneque
Sentence: 24 years
Status: Villa Clara , Santa Clara Provincial Prison

José Luis García Paneque is a plastic surgeon and a director of Libertad agency (Las Tunas),
sentenced in Las Tunas province. Prosecutors had asked for 18 years but the court raised the
sentence to 24 without explanation. In July 2000, Paneque wrote an article titled “Doctors or slaves?”,
which was highly critical of the official practice of imposing internal exile on any physician who asked
to leave the country legally. Married, Paneque has four children.

Oscar Elias Biscet
Sentence: 25 years
Status: Ciudad de la Habana

Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet was one of the last to be tried. Dr. Biscet is a medical doctor by profession and
had been jailed since the December 2002 protest.

Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello
Sentence: 20 years
Status: Ciudad de la Habana

Marta Beatriz Roque - the only woman detained - is an economist and the director of
the Cuban Institute of Independent Economists. Roque, age 58, had previously served nearly
three years in prison. Along with three other dissidents, she was prosecuted after publishing
an analytical paper titled "The Homeland Belongs to All," which discussed Cuba's human rights
situation and called for reforms. She is a recipient of the 2002 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of
Scientists Award of the New York Academy of Sciences. In April of this year, she was sentenced
for her opposition activity to 20 years in prison.

Jorge Olivera Castillo
Sentence: 18 years
Status: Guantánamo , Chafarina

Jorge Olivera Castillo was the head of Havana Press agency (Havana) and later its interim director
and a former reporter for New Cuban Press. In a 1997 crackdown on independent journalists he was
denounced by Cuban authorities for ''consorting with the foreign media.'' Neighborhood vigilante groups
ordered him to leave his Havana home and he was forced to sleep on park benches for a while.
In November 1999, he was denounced by name by Fidel Castro as one of the dissidents who allegedly
planned to disrupt the Ibero-American Summit in Havana. Married, he has a 10-year-old daughter

Omar Rodríguez Saludes
Sentence: 27 years
Status: Camagüey, Kilo 8

Omar Rodriguez Saludes received the second longest sentence of 27 years.
He is an independent journalist and the head of Nueva Prensa agency (Havana).

Miguel Galván Gutiérrez
Sentence: 26 years
Status: Matanzas, Agüica

Miguel Galván is a journalist for Havana Press agency (Güines).

Victor Rolando Arroyo
Sentence: 26 years
Status: Chafirina, Guantanamo

Victor Rolando Arroyo is a journalist for the UPECI agency (Pinar del Río).

Normando Hernández González
Sentence: 25 years
Status: Santiago de Cuba, Boniato

Normando Hernández is the head of Independent College of Journalists agency (Camagüey).

Manuel Vázquez Portal
Sentence: 18 years
Status: Santiago de Cuba , Boniato

Manuel Vazquez Portal is a journalist with Grupo de Trabajo Decoro agency (Havana).

Plus thousands more...

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