Posted on 03/28/2002 3:57:25 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
VARADERO, Cuba -- Sitting in the shade of a coconut palm, Jackie Haddad points to the aqua waves rolling ashore to explain why she and her husband returned to Cuba for the fourth year in a row.
"It's so beautiful -- we're stressed, and we want to relax," said the Canadian lingerie manufacturer. "And you get more for your money here."
Rumbling overhead, a vintage 1930s prop plane worthy of an Indiana Jones movie is the lone reminder that the Haddads are lounging in a land frozen in time and forbidden to most Americans.
For years, travelers like the Haddads have offended many Cuban exiles who think tourists perpetuate Cuban President Fidel Castro's authoritarian hold on power by infusing his fragile economy with hard currency. That view has long guided U.S. policy, which bars a majority of Americans from traveling to Cuba.
But exiles who hold the opposite view will gather in Miami today in hopes of showing that U.S. policy is being "held hostage" by a very small minority that is out of step with the rest of America.
Their conference, titled "The Time is Now to Reassess U.S. Policy Toward Cuba," might be just another academic footnote were it not for the guest speakers. For the first time in history, organizers say, former diplomats and members of Congress who support ending the travel ban and 40-year-old trade embargo against Cuba will push their opinions in a city where such discussion was once taboo -- and dangerous.
In years past, opponents have used bombs to try to silence those who think that engaging, rather than isolating, Cuba will lead to democratic reforms on the island.
"Normally, sitting congressmen would not speak in another congressman's district, especially when they are diametrically opposed to the hometown congressman," said Sally Grooms Cowal, former U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago who now directs the Cuba Policy Foundation.
U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, both Miami Republicans, are the staunchest Castro foes in Congress and strongly support the U.S. embargo. Traveling to their hometown for such a conference, Cowal said, is like "going into the lion's den."
Cowal and U.S. Reps. William Delahunt, D- Mass., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., key members of a new Congressional working group on Cuba, will find themselves in the "lion's den" thanks in large measure to a 6-year-old boy who once lived in obscurity in a small town just outside Varadero: Elian Gonzalez.
Like many Americans, Cowal and Delahunt said, they paid little attention to U.S. Cuban policy until Juan Miguel Gonzalez waged his battle to return his son Elian to the island. That's when they began questioning why the United States continued to isolate Cuba when, after 40 years, it had yet to achieve its goal.
Their answer: For too long, presidential candidates hoping to win the state of Florida have allowed hard-line Cuban exiles to control the debate over U.S. policy -- at the expense of the national interest and national will. As evidence, Cowal points to polls showing strong American support for ending the travel ban and other sanctions on Cuba, as well as studies concluding the embargo is costing the U.S. economy at least $1 billion a year.
"Is there a company in the U.S. that wouldn't change its business practice if that practice was a 40-year failure?" Cowal said. "Freedom is contagious, and it's time to let Americans travel to Cuba so Cubans can catch it."
Flake, whose amendment ending enforcement of the travel ban overwhelmingly passed the House last year, agreed.
"We've argued for years that the best way to bring democracy to China is to engage them, send Americans there and have free trade and commerce, but then we turn around and say it won't work for Cuba," Flake said. "I'm no fan of Castro. . . but every American ought to have the right to see what a mess that man has made of that island."
Real Cuba hidden
To the dismay of the Cuban American National Foundation and other proponents of U.S. policy, many of Cuba's 1.77 million tourists, including many Canadians, don't see much of the real Cuba.
Like the Haddads, these travelers prefer the confines of their lush, seaside resorts where the biggest decision is what to choose from the ample buffet -- and where the Cubans who clean their rooms and serve their drinks are forbidden to stay. Even Cubans invited to visit foreigners at their hotels are turned away at the door.
Cuban officials defend such restrictions, saying they further the revolution's goal of building an egalitarian society. In other words, until all can afford to stay in Cuba's best hotels, none will -- unless they are being rewarded for stellar performance or are on their honeymoon.
Roberto Marty, chief of staff for Cuba's Minister of Tourism, said every couple married on the island is allowed three days in a neighborhood hotel while 400,000 of the "best workers, the best students, the best professionals and the best artists" are allowed a week at cut-rate peso prices.
Tourists who venture beyond Varadero or the other seaside resorts find a nation rich in natural beauty and historic architecture. They also find people struggling for food and housing and yearning for freedoms beyond the Castro revolution's claims of universal education and health care.
As David Podgornik, a metallurgist from Slovenia who recently toured the island with two friends, said, "There is no similar place in the world because of the system, because it's tropical, because of the people. Castro has done some good things for sure but, from our point of view, Cubans live in a cage."
And that's why Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, says most Americans should continue to be barred from traveling to Cuba.
Forcing reform
"Does a tour through a jail improve jail conditions?" Garcia asked. "I don't mind purposeful travel to Cuba -- people who help the dissident movement, or the independent library movement, or who go to rebuild churches. I'm all for that. What I'm not for is a stampede of Americans prolonging the Cuban people's suffering."
Delahunt, however, contends that a flood of Americans would do just the opposite. The Massachusetts congressman says Cuba's tourism infrastructure, which has grown from 12,900 hotel rooms in 1990 to more than 37,000 today thanks to Spanish, Italian and Canadian investors, could not handle an American onslaught. Such a flood, he said, would force the Cuba government to instigate the kind of economic reforms that sanctions have yet to achieve.
"The private sector would have to take a significant role in creating the infrastructure," Delahunt said.
Garcia scoffs at such an argument, noting that it ignores the very essence of the Castro regime: There is no private sector or private property in Cuba. The Cuban government owns and controls everything.
"It's like saying if you do business with the Mafia, you'll change them, you'll legitimize them," Garcia said.
"All you do is participate in their illegality."
Accusing many in the opposition of putting financial interests over moral interests, Garcia calls the polls showing Americans support ending sanctions as too broad to be meaningful.
He also dismisses the nine Cuban-Americans on the organizing committee of today's symposium as a "shadow group" with no influence in the exile community. But one of those organizers points to the conference itself as proof that Garcia is wrong.
"If we are so insignificant, why are these people of such stature coming to town -- to make fools of themselves?" asked Silvia Wilhelm, executive director of Cuban Bridges, which arranges exchanges in Cuba.
Maya Bell can be reached at 305-810-5003 or mbell@orlandosentinel.com.
Nice visual. I'm afraid if we recognize Castro's oppressive regime by opening up travel and trade, we will be sealing their fate under communist rule. It will legitimize it and prop it up just enough to take off that explosion of hate and dispair you speak of. Castro has said the revolution will out live him and I can pretty well bet he's put in place all the stops on any revolt. Here is an interview you may find interesting and informative. Thank you for your posts.
Vicki Huddleston Q&A: speaks about dissidents, Castro and the U.S. role
[Excerpts] Q: What does the average Cuban on the island think of the Cuban exile community?
A: That's hard for me to answer. It depends on the education level. If they are not very educated, if they live in a rural area, they probably believe what they hear in the state-run media and in the rallies, which is not good. But if they are more sophisticated and listen to Radio Martí, or if you're at the university or work at a hospital, then you're likely not going to believe the negative propaganda. You're probably aware the Cuban American community does not represent a threat to you. But if you're a farmer in a rural area, or a teacher or a guard placed outside my house, you might believe what the Cuban government tells you. There is a billboard in Cuba that says ``There are a million children who will sleep in the street tonight. Not one is Cuban.''
……….. Q: Should Cuba be removed from the list of terrorist states?
A: Cuba knows what it has to do to get off the list of terrorist states, and that is simply not to give safe haven to terrorist groups as it has in the past. We suspect, and in some cases we know, that they have provided safe harbor to members of the ETA [Basque separatists], other leftist movements of Latin America, the macheteros [pro-independence radicals in Puerto Rico] and the 70-some fugitives from the United States [the FBI believes that 77 federal fugitives are in Cuba, including former CIA agent Frank Terpil, a convicted arms trafficker, and Robert Vesco, indicted in a multimilliion dollar fraud]. Those are not terrorists, but they are still fugitives from justice. Cuba is not the player it once was on the world stage. Ten or 15 years ago, Cuba was a major player and Fidel had a large platform. It's much smaller now. . . . I don't see Cuba even as a leader on the Caribbean stage. I see more democratic Caribbean countries taking leadership roles.
………….Q: Should travel restrictions to Cuba be lifted?
A: The problem with the lifting of travel restrictions is that the Cubans control it because they issue the visas. They can put quotas. They can decide to allow only the tourists going to Varadero and Cayo Coco and ensure they have very little contact with the Cuban people. And all that will do, initially, is fill the government coffers and build up the regime. It's ironic because what you need is for the government to respond to the current economic crisis by opening up, by letting Cubans own and operate their own businesses, by letting them invest, letting them stay at hotels. [In Cuba,] the economy is shrinking. It is too dependent on tourism and remittances. Their way of fixing the problem is to fill up the hotels. A far preferable way . . . would be to grow the economy by letting the people invest in their community by starting small businesses -- not just restaurants and taxis and services, but also . . . creating products. You have natural capitalists in Cuba, and the proof of that is in the cars they have and how they take care of them. If allowed to work independently, they would create wealth through their own labor . . .[End Excerpt]
The Cuban government does not hamper tourists, who run all over the place. You can rent cars, stay in private homes, speak with everyone in your path. Spies everywhere, but they basically just observe. More tourists than spies at this point. With the great numbers of foreign tourists there now, literally millions from every other country but USA, Cuban people are having their eyes opened bigtime. It's ludicrous that they cannot meet Americans on a personal basis.
Cuba is a major travel destination for Canadians, Brits, Germans, everyone but us. We didn't meet a single Cuban -- and we went out of our way to meet all kinds of people -- who didn't welcome us with, literally, open arms. They were thrilled and delighted to meet real live Americans. The good we can do far outweighs other considerations.
"Despite millions of foreign tourists every years Cuba remains a totalitarian state. Canada has acknowledged that its "policy of engagement" has failed to produce any significant change in the human rights situation on the island. Why should American tourists have an impact different from the thousands of Canadians who have been visiting Cuba for years." Pointed out Frank Calzon on February 11, 2002 at the U.S. Senate Subcommittee’s hearings on the U.S. travel ban to Cuba.
Mr. Calzon added:” I would be ironic if in the name of advancing tourist travel, a leader of anti-American violence around the world, a government on the U.S. Department of State's list of sponsor of terrorism, and one of the world's leading violators of human rights were to be bolstered by an infusion of American-tourist dollars." May I also add and the massive infusion of American taxpayer's money.
"Despite millions of foreign tourists every years Cuba remains a totalitarian state. Canada has acknowledged that its "policy of engagement" has failed to produce any significant change in the human rights situation on the island. Why should American tourists have an impact different from the thousands of Canadians who have been visiting Cuba for years." Pointed out Frank Calzon on February 11, 2002 at the U.S. Senate Subcommittee’s hearings on the U.S. travel ban to Cuba.
Mr. Calzon added:” I would be ironic if in the name of advancing tourist travel, a leader of anti-American violence around the world, a government on the U.S. Department of State's list of sponsor of terrorism, and one of the world's leading violators of human rights were to be bolstered by an infusion of American-tourist dollars." May I also add and the massive infusion of American taxpayer's money.
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