Frank Calzon. The Miami Herald. February 22, 2002.
The American Civil Liberties Union is urging the U.S. government to lift its
ban on travel to Cuba. It would be ironic if in the name of advancing civil
liberties, one of the world's great human-rights violators were bolstered by an
infusion of American-tourist dollars.
The ACLU states: "Freedom to travel should be the right of all
Americans, even to countries like China and Cuba where we disagree with much of
their domestic policy. The issue relates more to rights of American citizens
than to rights or foreign-policy positions of foreign governments.''
The ACLU's work in defending unpopular people and causes and protecting
American civil rights and liberties is admirable. Consider, however, that
changing U.S. travel policy would only help Fidel Castro legitimize the Cuban
government's "tourist apartheid.''
The Castro government sets aside hotels, beaches, stores and restaurants,
even hospitals and clinics, for foreigners, and it prohibits Cubans even from
visiting the areas and facilities. Has the ACLU no moral responsibility to raise
that issue while advocating changes in U.S. travel policy? Should the rights of
vacationing American tourists supersede the rights of people living in Cuba to
move freely about their own country? To eat at the same restaurants? Visit the
same beaches? Seek care in the same clinics? Why not call on Castro to lift his
tourist apartheid?
Castro goes to great lengths to restrict the rights of Cubans. Consider the
case of Lázara Brito and her children, Yanelis, Yamila and Isaac. They
were granted U.S. visas in 1996 but remain virtual hostages in Havana. The
Castro government will not allow them to join José Cohen, her husband and
their father, in the United States. Cohen, a former Cuban intelligence officer,
received political asylum in the United States in 1994. Despite his appeals to
international organizations and to Americans who meet with Castro, his family
remains in Cuba. They are not charged with any crime.
Will the ACLU ignore the flouting of the right to travel freely to and from
one's own country? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Cuba signed,
guarantees that right.
What about the right of U.S. citizens to use international airspace? Six
years ago Castro's warplanes shot down two small planes in international
airspace over the Florida Straits. Three U.S. citizens died. So did a Cuban
legally residing in our country. The United States presented indisputable
evidence to international organizations that the Castro government deliberately
killed these men.
CONSIDER CASTRO'S ABUSES
Would it be fair to say that the right to live is just as important as the
right to travel? Will the ACLU join families seeking an indictment of those who
pulled the trigger? So far it considers this "the failure of the Justice
Department to take action, that is something far beyond our sphere of
influence.''
The Cuban regime needs the foreign tourism to maintain its repression. The
government is bankrupt. Yet the dictator continues to mobilize foreign
apologists to press for access to both U.S. trade credits and loan guarantees
(which U.S. taxpayers would fund) and to American tourist dollars.
Let us not pretend that Americans have an absolute right to vacation in
Cuba, without regard to impact. Rights are always balanced with
responsibilities. Americans have a right to travel, but they also have the
responsibility to take into account Castro's denial of all civil liberties in
Cuba, his 43 years of allying with rogue regimes and sponsoring anti-American
violence around the world, and his continuous self-serving efforts to manipulate
American institutions and public opinion.
In 1984 the Supreme Court ruled that restrictions on travel to Cuba ''are
justified by weighty concerns of foreign policy.'' That is no less true today.
Defense of civil liberties neither requires nor warrants U.S. dollars
subsidizing repression in Cuba.
Frank Calzón is executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba. | 
