Editorials. Published Sunday, June 25, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Better than farm sales to undermine its regime
Stories of reconciliation, aid, sharing, even heated political arguments between Miami exiles and Cuban relatives, testify to the force of people-to- people contact in Cuba.
Congress this week will consider again the matter of allowing food sales to Cuba. Some who favor such trade argue that it will undermine Cuba's communist regime. We believe it will have the opposite result.
But there is a different change in U.S.-Cuba policy that would help to transform Cuba. Congress should lift the restrictions that now currently keep most Americans from traveling to Cuba.
First to the issue of trade: U.S. farm groups have lobbied heavily for a change in the embargo that would allow U.S. agricultural products to be sold to Cuba. But Cuba's bankrupt regime doesn't have the money to pay for this. Which country's taxpayers do you suppose will end up subsidizing the
sale of food that will be used to prop up Fidel Castro's government? Ours. We're against it.
Then to the issue of travel to Cuba: The U.S. embargo doesn't outlaw travel; it forbids anyone residing in the United States to spend money in Cuba unless specifically licensed to do so.
RELAXED RESTRICTIONS
What does that mean? It means that most citizens have to go through red tape to do something that is unenforceable without the cooperation of the Cuban authorities -- and Cuban authorities are not going to stop tourists from spending dollars there. Growing numbers of Americans get around this
altogether through bogus ``fully hosted'' arrangements whereby Americans fly to a third country, give their dollars to an entity in that country that, in turn, pays the Cubans.
Is this any way to run a policy? We don't think so.
The Clinton administration has generally relaxed restrictions and granted licenses to U.S. journalists and academics and others with specific cultural, business or humanitarian purposes. Travel rules have been liberalized to allow direct flights to Cuba from more U.S. cities, beyond Miami.
And then there's the exception to the prohibition for Cuban Americans, who have long been authorized to visit relatives once a year. They represent more than 90 percent of some 150,000 who went to Cuba last year, forming part of a growing trend.
We support people-to-people contacts and support the legal practices that make them possible. The countless stories of reconciliation, aid, information sharing, even heated political arguments between Miami exiles and Cuban relatives -- whether taking place in Cuba or Miami -- testify to the
force of this human contact. And we think that Americans, whether Cuban Americans or not, have shown by their actions that they think so, too.
Congress should lift travel restrictions to Cuba. Let Americans travel to Cuba freely. If Castro tries to stop them, his weakness will be further exposed. If he doesn't, the presence of average Americans will undermine the myth of his ``socialist paradise.''
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