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Cuban-Americans deride
U.S. limits on visits to Cuba
Families feel it most,
they say
By David Cázares,
Havana Bureau. Sun-Sentinel,
Posted January 22 2006.
HAVANA · Mario Ernesto Romero is
a proud new father, eager to tell a visitor
about his 5-month-old son.
"His name is Mario, just like his
grandfather, just like me, just like his
great grandfather," Romero said.
But Romero's joy is tinged with sadness.
His father, Mario Romero of Hialeah Gardens,
is happy about the baby but won't be able
to spend time with the child for at least
a year.
Like thousands of other Cuban-Americans,
the elder Romero will visit less frequently
because the Bush administration last year
limited visits to relatives on the island
to once every three years.
In Cuba, where many people depend on relatives
in the states for information and support,
the new U.S. rules are widely derided. Cuba's
Catholic bishops criticized the measures,
saying that like Cuban policies that limit
exit permits, they affect the island's poorest
families.
The younger Romero, 34, who archives materials
for the blind and shows people how to use
books in Braille and computers at a regional
library in Old Havana, is pained by the
separation.
"I lost my mother five years ago,
and all I have is my father," said
Romero, who has a degenerative eye condition
and is legally blind. "When you can't
reach out, it's like a trauma, not being
able to see your loved ones as you'd like.
There are moments that it makes me cry.
It's very hard."
Romero and his father were among those
interviewed by New York-based Human Rights
Watch, which in October accused the United
States and Cuba of imposing travel restrictions
that wrench families apart and violate basic
rights.
U.S. officials say the administration's
policies aren't aimed at the Cuban people
but at the Cuban government, which depends
on foreign currency for its survival. Visitors
to Cuba pay fees to the government, and
many bring relatives cash and gifts.
"Virtually ... 95 to 98 percent of
the money that comes into the island is
going to end up in the hands of the state,"
Michael Parmly, head of the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana, said in a recent interview.
"That ... means that money is going
to feed a totalitarian state.
According to U.S. government and business
estimates, the amount of money Cubans receive
annually from relatives abroad -- most in
the United States -- varies from about $400
million to more than $1 billion.
Even Cubans who are displeased with their
government for the lack of higher-paying
jobs and better goods and services don't
like being caught in Washington's latest
economic salvo against the island.
"That hurts the people," said
Carlos Alberto, 43, from the Diez de Octubre
neighborhood, a working-class section of
Havana. "How many Cubans are there
in Miami? It's good that they can come back
here and share with us."
U.S. government officials say the new measures
have deprived Fidel Castro's government
of much-needed hard cash.
Phil Peters, of the Virginia-based Lexington
Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based interdisciplinary
research group, said the Central Intelligence
Agency's estimates show that Cuba's economy
is growing by more than $1 billion a year.
At most, Peters said, the administration's
sanctions trim Cuba's growth by a third.
"Only in Cuba has America tried to
fight communism by aiming economic sanctions
directly at families," Peters said.
"The policy has succeeded in hurting
families, but the Cuban government is as
strong as ever. And fewer visits means a
reduced flow of information and ideas in
a country that the administration wants
to change profoundly."
Silvia Wilhelm, a Cuban-American anti-embargo
activist in Miami, said the administration's
policy won't work because Cuba is increasingly
relying on subsidies from Venezuela and
trade agreements with China. The Cuban government
also no longer needs to depend so heavily
on dollars, because it implanted a new exchange
rate in April that gives Cubans 83 convertible
pesos for every $100 sent from the United
States, she said.
"This [travel] policy does not represent
American values," Wilhelm said. "On
the contrary, it is nothing short of a counterproductive
policy that hurts the Cuban nation, both
inside and outside the island."
The elder Romero, who came to the United
States 14 years ago, agreed. Since 1995
he made three to five trips a year to Cuba
to visit his son, taking medicine, clothes
and other things for his family. Now he
sends his family what they need, but he
longs to be with them.
The travel restrictions put him and other
separated families in a bind, he said.
"You either comply with your conscience
and your family by violating the rules,
or you go against your conscience and your
family by respecting the rules," he
said in his Hialeah Gardens home. "We
both have a need to be with each other.
I don't see why I can only visit him once
every three years. I don't see the logic
in it. It seems incredibly cruel."
Mario Romero lights up and smiles when
he talks about his grandson, whose pictures
are saved on his home computer. He also
proudly shows off a calendar made with a
picture of the chubby baby that he affectionately
calls "Mayitín," but whom
he has never met.
Romero, 62, has the same eye condition
as his son and also is legally blind. Although
he is recovering from a heart attack he
had in November, the retired teacher and
former university professor hopes to be
in good health when February 2007 rolls
around and he's eligible to return to Cuba.
"I want to take care of myself so
that I can see them," he said. "I
don't know how long I can wait."
Staff Writer Madeline Baró Diaz
contributed to this report.
David Cázares can be reached at
dpcazares01@yahoo.com.
Copyright 2006, Sun-Sentinel
Co. & South Florida Interactive Inc.
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