End the Travel Ban on Cuba

People-to-people travel has been one of the few successful elements of U. S current policy towards Cuba.  However, this category of travel has been under constant attack since its implementation by the Obama Administration in January 2012.

According to the Treasury Department, approximately 160 organizations were granted people-to-people licenses in the past year. Now about 140, a sizeable number, of those people-to-people travel licenses are languishing in the bureaucratic depths of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, pending renewal.   Twenty applications of the total 160 have been newly granted or renewed within the past month, but some very respectable organizations have been denied their renewal. In 2010-2011 we worked tirelessly to reinstate this category of travel, and we will not stand by quietly and watch it shrivel and disappear.

I have been curious about Cuba since 1999 when a friend told me to get there before the United States invaded because there would be a Gap store on every corner. Her photos showed a uniqueness, an old authenticity that I didn’t think I had experienced before. As a long- time wanderlust sufferer, if a highly-regarded worldly friend tells me a place is a “must see,” it goes on the list. I never did my homework about Cuba but rather, like many of us, allowed myself to be fed the random dogma and propaganda from the news. My curiosity lingered, and in 2007 while working for the U.S. government in the Caribbean, I learned the HIV rates in Cuba were thought to be among the lowest in the world. This was largely accomplished through quarantine. If you had HIV, you were segregated. How awful, I thought. What a terrible and demoralizing way to treat people. This rounded out my perceptions about Cuba. A place full of culture and antiquity but drowning in oppression and prejudice. I still wanted to go. In May of this year, while trolling the net for Cuba trips, I discovered Global Exchange; and as crazy luck would have it, Busboys and Poetswas taking a group to Cuba the same week I was free! [editor’s note: Busboys and Poets is a restaurant, bookstore, lounge, and theater in Washington, D.C., founded in 2005 by Andy Shallal. It has been described as a haven for writers, thinkers and performers from America's progressive social and political movements.]

The Cuban government has lifted travel restrictions for its citizens. Yes, you’re reading that correctly…the Cuban government.

Reuters reports that the announcement was made official today in the Cuban state newspaper, Granma. “The government now is set to lift requirements to obtain an exit visa permitting departure from Cuba and a letter of invitation from someone in the destination country. Instead, starting on January 14, Cubans will simply have to show a passport and, if needed, a visa from the country to which they are traveling, Communist Party newspaper Granma said.”

While most members of Congress were on recess in August, we weren’t.  Instead of hanging up our hats, we are prepping for what may come this fall. This means educating ourselves and you on some of the harsh aspects of our current policy towards Cuba.

In light of both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, Cuban Americans for Engagement (CAFE), has a message for them from the Cuban-American community:

“We, as Cuban Americans and American citizens, urge both parties to not fall into the trap of viewing our community as a monolithic voting bloc that is in favor of the United States' embargo on Cuba. We are a diverse body of voices with a majority that favors a policy of engagement and, ultimately, normalization of relations between the two nations.”

People-to-people travel has been one of the few successful elements of our current policy towards Cuba.  Now, that could all change.

Many of about 140 existing people-to-people travel licenses are languishing in the bureaucratic depths of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, pending renewal.  And we know of only three that have been renewed. In 2010-2011 we worked tirelessly to re-instate this category of travel and we will not stand by quietly and watch it shrivel and disappear.

As I pushed an old flamboyantly-painted yellow school bus down the streets of Havana in front of the U.S. Interests Section and a billboard exclaiming “Venceremos!” (We will overcome), I realized how privileged I was to spend a week in a country so mysterious to U.S. citizens, and so troubled, yet filled with beautiful, smart, and passionate people. I don’t pretend to believe that I could possibly understand Cuba in one week, but I can say that after visiting the island only 90 miles from the Florida Keys, I am a better person, I think more critically about what I am told, and I see the connection between the U.S. and Cuban people as a connection worth fighting for.  Photo by Josh Halpren: Participants from AU's Alternative Break program to Cuba

On July 10th in Washington DC, Reverend Francisco Marrero, the General Secretary of the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba (PRCC), discussed the role of the PRCC in Cuba. In celebration of the 45th anniversary in which the PRCC became autonomous from the New Jersey Senate of the Presbyterian Church, Marrero shared the strides the PRCC had made as well as the challenges the church still faces in light of its strong and active presence within Cuba's ecumenical community.

These days, current United States policy towards Cuba seems to be maneuvered by a strong backbone called Florida, who appears to be standing a little taller. With recent news of stiffer laws that Florida state legislators have backed to their 90.5-mile away neighbor, could the state of Florida be overstretching its rights and treading upon the federal government by creating its own foreign policy?

With nearly 2 million Cubans in the United States, approximately 400,000 travelled last year to Cuba. Fifty percent of family members who travel to Cuba are U.S. residents, not citizens. U.S. Rep. David Rivera has proposed an amendment to make it illegal for Cuban residents living in the U.S. to travel to Cuba for any reason (i.e. a death in the family, daughter is sick…etc.) and then return to the United States. What will happen if this goes into effect? Well, before that happens, the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights (CACFR) is speaking out; and its executive director, Silvia Wilhelm, said, “We will fight this cruelty proposed by Rivera.” The Latin America Working Group is 100% behind CACFR. See below for CACFR's full press release.