| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Monday, May 27 2002 |
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| Few things in life are as baffling as U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba.
Why, for example, were former President Jimmy Carter, his wife Roslyn, son Chip and a delegation from Atlanta's Carter Center allowed to spend one week in Cuba, while the average American would face fines and a possible prison sentence for doing the same thing?
And how come President Carter gave a historic speech calling for an end to the four-decade-old embargo and travel ban, only to have the current resident of the White House call for toughening the conditions to lift the embargo and travel ban a few days later?
The answer to my first question is that under the Trading With the Enemy Act, American citizens cannot travel to Cuba. The only exceptions are government officials, journalists, professional researchers, certain athletes and Cuban-Americans visiting relatives. Carter was able to travel by obtaining special permission from the Treasury Department.
A possible answer to my second question can be summed up in one word: votes. That's right -- votes for George W.'s re-election campaign in 2004, and votes for Jeb, his younger brother, who is running for re-election as Florida's governor and who needs Cuban-American votes in Miami to win. And the exiles almost always vote for politicians who call for tightening the screws on Fidel Castro. The Cuban-American community is so strong and politically savvy that it has put itself in the driver's seat of U.S. policy toward Cuba.
Carter's speech, which was broadcast nationwide on state-run Cuban television, was a thoughtful, logical and courageous attempt to bring Cuba out of the communist dark ages and into the democratic family of nations. The former president pointed out that Cuba has made tremendous advances in medicine, education, culture and sports, but it has a shameful record of human-rights abuse, and it operates under a system of government that does not allow room for dissent.
Carter called on Fidel Castro to allow United Nations human rights monitors and the International Red Cross to visit Cuba. He mentioned Project Varela, a grass-roots petition drive calling for a nationwide referendum in Cuba. The referendum would allow Cubans to vote on a number of democratic reforms, including free elections, free speech and freedom for political prisoners. Even though the referendum is -- ironically -- permitted under the Cuban Constitution, few people expect that Fidel Castro will allow it to take place.
Carter also called on the United States to end the embargo and drop the travel ban. Right now, if you travel to Cuba, you could be subject to a 10-year prison term and fines as high as $1 million. The embargo, aimed at toppling Castro, was put into effect during the Kennedy administration. Obviously, the embargo has not worked. Nine American presidents later, Castro is still in power, and our policy toward Cuba is still driven by the same Cold War mentality. To make matters worse, the travel ban is routinely violated by Americans who travel to Cuba through third countries, and Cuban-Americans -- supposedly the embargo's staunchest supporters -- send $700 million a year in remittances to family members on the island.
Sadly, Carter's advice to both Fidel Castro and President Bush could end up falling on deaf ears. There is so much noise on both sides that a voice of reason can easily be drowned out. There are so many political interests on both sides that neither one is willing to compromise. In the end, the biggest accomplishments of Carter's trip might be the facts that millions of Cubans learned about the ills of their own country through his televised speech, and that millions of Americans got to learn more about Cuba and the U.S. policy that is as old and decrepit as the dictator it is trying to topple. |
