Over the next several months, both Houses of the Congress are likely to engage in debates over whether or not U.S. citizens should be free to travel to Cuba. As you may know, Senators Baucus (D-MT) and Enzi (R-WY) recently introduced S. 950, the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2003. A companion bill, HR 2071, was introduced in the House by Representative Flake (R-AZ) and 52 members of the House Cuba Working Group. There are currently 23 co-sponsors for the Senate bill, and 60 co-sponsors for the House bill. There is broad, bi-partisan support for measures to end the ban on travel to Cuba. In the last three years, the full House has repeatedly approved language easing the ban on travel to Cuba, and travel language has passed through committee in the Senate but failed to reach the floor. These actions signal the determination of members to raise this issue again in 2003.

Some have questioned why, after the recent wave of repression in Cuba itself, the United States ought to take any measures to reduce tension or improve U.S.-Cuban relations. The reasons for ending the travel ban are as valid today as they were last year. In fact, recent events make it more important to take steps to improve U.S.-Cuban relations and ease tensions. Improved relations will permit us to address the human rights problems in a constructive manner, and in a way that best serves U.S. interests. Below, we outline the key arguments for easing the travel ban at this time, and cite some of the organizations and institutions that support this position.

Why the United States Should End the Ban on Travel to Cuba

1. Cuba Travel Restrictions Are Unfair to U.S. Citizens

• Travel restrictions infringe upon American citizens’ right to travel. Former Supreme Court Justice William Douglas said, “freedom of movement is the very essence of our free society, setting us apart…it often makes all other rights meaningful.” While the Supreme Court has allowed travel bans on the basis of national security in the past, Cuba is not a security threat to the United States.
  
• Cuba is not a security threat to the United States or its citizens and Americans should be allowed to travel there. Some Bush Administration officials have recently repeated charges that Cuba has “a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort.” But the claim is misleading and the Administration has provided no evidence for it, citing only Cuba’s advanced biotechnology sector. Cuba is not included in U.S. lists of states that possess biological or chemical weapons, weapons of mass destruction or advanced conventional munitions. None of the reports issued by the Defense Department, the CIA or other U.S. government agencies in the last three years have listed Cuba as a threat to the United States or other countries. Prior to his May 2002 trip to Cuba, former President Jimmy Carter was briefed by U.S. State Department and intelligence officials, who assured him that Cuba posed no terrorist threat to the United States. On his trip, Carter had unlimited access to all of Cuba’s biotechnology facilities. The Administration’s claim is unsupported, and seems to be politically motivated. (For more information, visit http://www.ciponline.org/cuba.)
  
• The restrictions on travel to Cuba are inconsistent with U.S. policy on citizen travel to other countries. Congress and the Administration continue to uphold restrictions on travel to Cuba, while allowing Americans the right to travel to other communist nations, including North Korea, China, and Vietnam.

2. Cuba Travel Restrictions Don’t Improve Human Rights in Cuba; They Are, In Fact, Counter-Productive

• Travel restrictions prevent exchange and understanding between the two nations. The travel ban severely limits opportunities to promote cultural understanding between Cubans and Americans and impedes improved relations between the two countries. But, the Bush Administration recently took steps to further curtail contact and exchange between the people of Cuba and the United States. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued new regulations on how the embargo against Cuba is enforced, eliminating the category of people-to-people educational travel, thereby significantly reducing educational trips to the island. Increased contact between Americans and Cubans would help dispel stereotypes and promote mutual understanding. Some critics of the Cuban government also believe that increased contact between Americans and Cubans would facilitate democratic change on the island. Former Congressman Mark Sanford (R-SC) commented, “We’re not going to weaken Castro’s grip on power by keeping Americans from traveling there. If we want to create change in Cuba, let good, average American citizens interface with Cubans.”
  
• The benefits of cultural exchange outweigh the costs of “propping up the regime.” Supporters of travel restrictions to Cuba argue that U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba would generate income for the Cuban government and thus prop up the regime. If millions of American tourists were to visit Cuba, this would boost the Cuban economy significantly (also helping the Cuban people), but the benefits of exchange between Americans and Cubans far outweigh whatever may be the costs of strengthening the Cuban economy. Allowing Americans to travel freely to Cuba would promote genuine people-to-people contact between U.S. and Cuban citizens, an approach that would benefit American political and economic interests, and would have a more constructive impact on Cuba than the current policy of isolation. Furthermore, the notion that denying the Cuban government revenue from U.S. travelers will undermine the regime is wrong. Cuba has survived without U.S. tourism for years. A strategy of starving the Cuban government by restricting U.S. travel is ineffective since millions of tourists from Canada and Europe visit the island each year.

3. By improving U.S.-Cuban relations, we make it possible to have an impact on the human rights situation in Cuba.

• Currently we have no positive impact. We have no leverage with the Cuban government because we have little trade and limited contact. In fact, U.S-Cuban tensions are making the human rights situation worse in Cuba by bringing Cuban government sanctions upon Cuban dissidents who are seen in Cuba as agents of a foreign power. Improving relations won’t change anything overnight, but it will create the conditions to have an impact over time.
  
  Some critics charge that ending the travel ban or working to improve U.S.-Cuban relations sends the wrong signal to the Castro government after the recent arrests. But those who seek an end to the travel ban have been outspoken in their criticism of the recent arrests, and no one can believe that they are appeasing the Cuban government or ignoring the repression. In fact, their response will make a constructive contribution to improving human rights in Cuba. The arrests, trials and sentences in Cuba should be condemned, but they do not justify continuing a failed policy of isolation.

4. Cuba travel will increase trade and will benefit the United States

• Most U.S. citizens are not allowed to travel to Cuba and U.S. tourist travel to the island is completely banned. The travel restrictions not only infringe upon American citizens’ right to travel, they also inhibit agricultural trade opportunities. If Americans were allowed to travel freely to Cuba, U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba would increase.
  
• Unrestricted travel to Cuba will generate new revenue in Cuba, which will increase the amount of Cuban resources available for purchasing U.S. agricultural products.
  
• Travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens will create additional demand in Cuba for American products, and U.S. tourism in Cuba would increase the demand for high quality U.S. food products there.

What do Supporters of Improving U.S.-Cuban Relations Now Say?

A broad range of organizations and individuals, from human rights and religious organizations, to businesses, Cuban-American groups and others, have condemned the crackdown in Cuba and continue to call for lifting travel restrictions. The following groups have recently spoken out in favor of changing U.S.-Cuba policy.

Human Rights Organizations:

• José Miguel Vivanco, Executive Director, Americas Division, Human Rights Watch:
  - “Human Rights Watch has monitored human rights conditions in Cuba for more than fifteen years. Although severe restrictions on basic civil and political rights have been a constant in Cuba during this period, the crackdown we have just seen . . . far surpasses the violations we have documented in the past.” (Testimony before the House Committee on International Relations, April 16, 2003)
  - “The Cuba travel embargo has been in place for four decades and it hasn’t done a bit of good. Allowing Americans to travel freely to Cuba would be much more helpful in encouraging reform.” And, “When it comes to promoting reform in Cuba, the United States has undermined its own influence by pursuing a policy condemned by the rest of the world. In its efforts to isolate Fidel Castro, it has only isolated itself.” (Press Release, April 30, 2003)
  
• Eric Olson, Advocacy Director for the Americas, Amnesty International USA:
  - “The crackdown on political dissidents that began on March 18th, and the execution of three would-be hijackers on April 11th are alarming and deeply disappointing occurrences that AI [Amnesty International USA] has denounced vociferously.”
  - “AI encourages the U.S. government to reconsider the wisdom and the efficacy of the economic embargo and travel ban on Cuba. The 40+ years of the embargo do not appear to have contributed to the betterment of human rights in Cuba and in some instances it has had negative impacts on human rights, especially with ramifications on economic and social rights and also because it provides the Cuban authorities with a convenient justification for repressive measures. The same holds true for the ban on travel.” (Quotes from testimony before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on May 7, 2003)

Religious Groups:

• Committee on International Policy, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
  - “Over the past two weeks, scores of Cuban dissidents . . . have been subjected to arbitrary arrest and trial . . . those arrested all seem to fit the general category of human rights and democracy advocates, which only authoritarian regimes have reason to fear.”
  - “We call again on our government to end the counter-productive embargo against Cuba. When U.S. citizens can trade with and travel to Cuba, freed of the present restrictions, the open exchange of ideas and interpersonal contact between our two peoples will help create a climate that promotes the kind of debate and advocacy for which today’s dissidents are being punished.” (Quotes from a public statement released April 7, 2003)

Cuban-American Organizations:

• Alfredo Duran, Secretary, Cuban Committee for Democracy: “Present policy has failed. A new policy calling for engagement with the people of Cuba through the lifting of travel restrictions is welcomed by the majority of Cuban Americans.”
  
• Silvia Wilhelm, Executive Director, Puentes Cubanos: “Our work has always been to support the people of both countries, to foster engagement, to foster respect and reconciliation. Now more than ever we must build bridges of support with the Cuban people, lifting the travel restrictions will be a major step forward to accomplish such a difficult but necessary task.”
  
• Delvis Fernandez, President, Cuban American Alliance: “Respectful engagement, commerce and freedom to travel will best serve the interests of both nations. Travel restrictions on Cuban American families [are] no way to extend American values.” (All quotes from “Press Release by Cuban-American Groups on Senate Travel Bill,” April 30, 2003)

Members of Congress

• Senator Michael Enzi: The bill we are introducing today makes real change in our policy toward Cuba that will lead to real change for the people of Cuba. What better way to let the Cuban people know of our concern for their plight than for them to hear it from their friends, and extended family from the United States? Or let them hear it from the American people who will go there. The people of this country are our best ambassadors and we should let them show the people of Cuba what we as a nation are all about. (Floor statement on introduction of the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, April 30, 2003)
  
• Senator Max Baucus: “I hope my colleagues will join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation. I believe it is the best way to show that we truly care about the Cuban people. And indeed, if we truly care about democracy, then let us send Cuba exactly that. Let us travel to Cuba and show them democracy in action.” (Floor statement on the introduction of the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, April 30, 2003)