Lifting the Cuban embargo

By Ramesh Sujanani, Jamaica Gleaner Contributor

 

 

 

Sometime ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly shared the view that the United States' embargo against Cuba helps the Castros, noting, "It is my personal belief that the Castros do not want to see an end to the embargo, and do not want to see normalisation with the United States."

Clinton said in the same interview that "we're open to changing with them," though the US government maintains its strong position against lifting the embargo.

The fact is that Cuban-Americans, most of whom reside in Miami, had their property and other assets confiscated by Fidel Castro, worth almost US$6 billion.  Should the embargo be lifted, these persons will require compensation for personal assets seized.  Who will make good that claim by the Cuban migrants?  Many are protesting Castro's reasons for becoming the dictator, and are not satisfied Castro will honour his obligations.  These Cuban-Americans have supported Obama's Florida campaign, and it seems that as long as it takes to recover their assets, they will continue to support him.

There are no other considerations, as the effect of battle (Bay of Pigs), and the Cuban Missile Crisis, seemed to have been relinquished.  The Cato Institute in the USA remarked: "The embargo has been a failure by every measure.  It has not changed the course or nature of the Cuban government.  It has not liberated a single Cuban citizen.  In fact, the embargo has made the Cuban people a bit more impoverished, without making them one bit more liberated.  At the same time, it has deprived Americans of their freedom to travel and has cost US farmers and other producers billions of dollars of potential exports."

I might add that it has also affected Jamaica's, and CARICOM's, trade possibilities with Cuba which may have been fruitful.  As it is at this time, we employ Cuban doctors and other medical assistants to improve our skills in medicine, and we have sent patients into Cuba who require ophthalmic operations; it seems their availability of this discipline is greater than ours.

The embargo does place the people in poverty, but as Mrs Clinton said, it indicates that the State prefers to have a docile and ignorant population.

I have heard from various Jamaicans who seem to feel various past governments in Jamaica seem to have a similar intent, though I cannot understand why this would occur in this country.  It seems a well-respected member of the Church, Pope John Paul II, had that on his mind about Cuba.

Some religious leaders oppose the embargo for a variety of reasons, including the humanitarian and economic hardships the embargo imposes on Cubans.  Pope John Paul II called for an end to the embargo during his 1979 pastoral visit to Mexico.  However, during his January 1998 visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II delivered his most powerful attack against President Fidel Castro's government, urging the Roman Catholic Church to take "courageous and prophetic stands in the face of the corruption of political or economic power" and to promote human rights within Cuba.

While also opposing the embargo, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches stated, "We did not understand the depth of the suffering of Christians under communism, and we failed to really cry out under the communist oppression."  The US bishops called for an end to the embargo after Pope Benedict's visit this year.  Cuba has also dubbed as 'theft' the use of frozen Cuban assets to pay for lawsuits filed in the US against the Republic of Cuba.

On Thursday, June 10, 2010, seventy-four of Cuba's dissidents signed a letter to the US Congress in support of a bill that would lift the travel ban for Americans wishing to visit Cuba.  The letter supports a bill introduced on February 23 by Representative Collin Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat, that would bar the president from prohibiting travel to Cuba or blocking transactions required to make such trips.  It also would bar the White House from stopping direct transfers between US and Cuban banks.

The signers stated: "We share the opinion that the isolation of the people of Cuba benefits the most inflexible interests of its government, while any opening serves to inform and empower the Cuban people and helps to further strengthen civil society."

At this time, Americans with family in Cuba are allowed to travel and visit them; they are also allowed to bring in foodstuffs and other necessities.

Ramesh Sujanani is a businessman. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and rsujanani78@gmail.com.

Jamaica Gleaner

November 24, 2012

U.S. Congress Urged to End Ban on Cuba Travel

By Maria Peña:

WASHINGTON – Activists lobbied on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a bill that would remove restrictions on travel to Cuba for all Americans, arguing it would be in keeping with President Barack Obama’s pledge to change U.S. policy toward the communist-ruled island.

During a meeting at the House of Representatives’ Rayburn House Office Building, several congressional leaders and more than 70 activists from a dozen states said the travel ban violates Americans’ basic rights.

Supporters of the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, including Democratic Reps. Charles Rangel and Bill Delahunt and Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, say Washington has tried for more than four decades to isolate Cuba economically and diplomatically without achieving the desired result.

They added that now is the time to try something different and that the bill has enough support in the House and Senate to be approved before year’s end.

The measure, submitted in March, would allow all Americans to travel to the island, not only Cuban-Americans with family members living there.   Only in the event of war or imminent danger to Americans could travel to Cuba be disallowed.

While hearings on the legislation could begin next month, the proposal faces opposition from Republicans and Cuban exiles, who denounce the continued violation of human rights on the island.

In April, Obama lifted restrictions of Cuban-Americans’ travel and remittances that had been imposed by the Bush administration and allowed U.S. telecommunications companies to apply for licenses to operate in Cuba.

In an exception to the economic embargo imposed in 1962, Washington for several years has allowed the sale of U.S. farm products to Cuba. The value of those transactions averages around $500 million a year.

Some experts who took part in Wednesday’s meeting told Efe that the measures Obama has adopted thus far are limited and insufficient.

“It disappoints me that more things aren’t being done more quickly, because most Americans support a relaxation of the embargo.   We have nothing to show for the embargo, which has been in place for decades,” said John Block, agriculture secretary under the Ronald Reagan administration.

“We travel to and do business with China and Vietnam. Aren’t we being hypocritical with this?   We should open up trade with Cuba because this embargo is only providing the regime in Havana with an excuse” for the island’s economic woes, Block said.

For his part, Wayne Smith, who served from 1979-1982 as chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, said that Obama “hasn’t done anything” and that, as a step toward change, “we should start a dialogue and lift the travel restrictions.”

“It’s disgraceful for a handful of lawmakers to block legislation when most Americans and the new generation of Cuban-Americans want relations with Cuba to improve,” Smith said.

Obama has said he will not consider lifting the embargo – imposed three years after Fidel Castro took power – unless Cuba frees political prisoners and undertakes democratic reforms.

Wednesday’s lobbying effort, described by organizers as an “education day for lawmakers,” comes amid a possible thaw in relations between the United States and Cuba, which have resumed talks on immigration, suspended in 2004, and are mulling the possible resumption of postal service after 46 years.

Bisa Williams, deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, met recently in Havana with high-ranking Cuban officials to discuss a range of issues. She visited an agricultural facility and areas affected by the three hurricanes that battered the island last year, the State Department said Tuesday.

She was the highest-ranking State Department official to visit Havana since 2002.

Leaders of Cuba’s dissident movement said Wednesday that they met with Williams during her stay on the island.

The chairman of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, Elizardo Sanchez, told Efe that encounter took place over lunch at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

Miriam Leyva, founder of the Ladies in White, a group comprising relatives of political prisoners, said Williams encouraged them to express their opinions and “showed solidarity at all times.”

Among the issues discussed, Leyva said, was the plight of Cuba’s 208 political prisoners, the government’s repression of the opposition and the situation in general on the island.

Also present for the lunch were prominent dissidents Vladimiro Roca, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Laura Pollan and Marta Beatriz Roque. EFE


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