New US-Cuba Policies
In June 2004, the Bush Administration ratcheted up restrictions on US-Cuba relations through a new set of repressive and short-sighted policies. Five Cuban-American groups in Miami, including the Antonio Maceo Brigade and the Alianza Martiana, have asserted that the new restrictions on travel and money remittances to Cuba will hurt their relatives on the island—not the Cuban government, the supposed target of the new policies. Andrés Gómez of the Antonio Maceo Brigade called the new policy “a violation of civil rights." As the Latin America Working Group has pointed out, the new restrictions “will only serve to increase tensions between the two nations, heightening fears of forcible regime change among the Cuban people.” Colin Powell's key aide has described US sanctions policy against countries such as Cuba as "the dumbest policy on the face of the Earth.”
What follows are some of the key changes mandated by the new policy, which severely limit the rights of Cubans and Cuban-Americans in the US to visit and send money to their families on the island and seriously undermine Cuba’s right to self-determination.
* OFAC is the Office of Foreign Assets Control, part of the US Dept. of the Treasury.
Context
Family Travel: While the cruelty of the restriction on the amount of baggage travelers can carry with them to Cuba may not be immediately obvious, it is actually one of the harshest pieces of the new policy. Most people visiting family in Cuba routinely bring several large bags with them, weighing 100 pounds each or more and bearing urgently needed items such as medicines, toys, and clothing. This will be impossible under the new guidelines, limiting families’ ability to share gifts with their loved ones and denying Cubans essential goods that are unavailable in Cuba or impossible to buy with the average Cuban salary.
Family Remittances: Remittances from Cubans and Cuban-Americans in the US to their relatives in Cuba currently total $800 million a year and are essential for many Cubans, who receive free health care, education, and housing but still lack money for necessities such as medicine, due in part to the US embargo.
Academic Programs: Programs shorter than one semester are now only permitted if they “directly support US foreign policy goals."
Educational Travel: All US organizations that had information-gathering or people-to-people licenses have lost their licenses over the past few months or, as is the case with MADRE, been issued restricted licenses that permit only staff or paid consultants of the organization to travel to Cuba for work related to the organization. MADRE therefore can no longer lead our twice-yearly delegations to Cuba, nor can we allow qualified groups to travel using our license. These restrictions severely reduce the number of people who can travel legally to Cuba and limit essential, enriching contact that builds bridges between Cubans and people from the US.
Additional new US policies/activities enacted by the Bush Administration in 2004 include:
Influence International Opinion and Action- Promote the image of Cuba as a country harboring international terrorists, committing espionage against the U.S. and other nations, inflicting human rights abuses, and undermining democratically elected governments in Latin America as part of a broader effort to discourage tourist travel and paint a negative picture of Cuba.
- Fund and promote international or third-country national conferences to disseminate information abroad about U.S. policies on “transition planning efforts” related to Cuba. Deter foreign investment in Cuba's confiscated properties. This is the land which Cuban-American expatriates left behind but still claim as their own, despite the fact that it was claimed by the Cuban government after the Revolution for public use.
- Support "Pro-democracy" movement (i.e., forces trying to undermine the Cuban Revolution) within Cuba
- Make available an additional $29 million (to augment the current Cuba program budget of $7 million) to the State Department, USAID, and other appropriate US government agencies for measures (detailed in the report) that will aid the training, development, and empowerment of a Cuban “democratic opposition and civil society."
- Spend $59 million over the next two years to help “promote a democratic Cuba”, including $18 million to evade Cuba's jamming of Radio and TV Marti, US government broadcast operations “tailored for Cuban audiences”. Cuba has successfully jammed those broadcasts for the past 14 years.
- Cuban Ambassador Orlando Requeijo Gual called Bush's proposal to deploy a C-130 military aircraft to broadcast near Cuban airspace "very dangerous".
What is the President’s Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba?
The Commission states that its goals are: to empower Cuban civil society; to break the Cuban dictatorship's information blockade; to deny resources to the Cuban dictatorship; to illuminate the reality of Castro's Cuba; to encourage international efforts to support Cuban civil society and challenge the Castro regime; and to undermine the regime's “succession strategy”.
Read more.For More Information
- Read the full report of the President’s Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba (about 500 pages). They take comments on the report at Cubacommission@state.gov.
MADRE’s Cuba Program
Together with the Cuban Red Cross and the Federation of Cuban Women, MADRE
- Delivers life-saving medicines and medical supplies to combat AIDS, breast cancer, pediatric diseases and other threats to public health in Cuba;
- Advocates in the US for an end to the embargo and normalized US-Cuba relations;
- Has organized bi-annual delegations to Cuba to enable people to see firsthand the impact of the embargo and Cuba’s efforts to build a just society.
This fact sheet was prepared using sources that included reports/articles by the New York Times, the Miami Herald, Latin America Working Group and Labor Exchange.