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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Use of dollars cut back, Castro government
says
Fidel Castro's government answered a U.S.
panel's suggestions for hastening the fall
of the regime by restricting Cubans' ability
to spend U.S. dollars on the island.
By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com.
Posted on Tue, May. 11, 2004 in the Miami
Herald.
In an move apparently aimed at punishing
Cubans who benefit from cash sent by relatives
in the United States, the Cuban government
late Monday announced that most sales in
dollars would be frozen in retaliation for
new proposals by the Bush administration
to hasten a democratic transition on the
communist-ruled island.
Sales of goods at dollar stores, except
for food and hygiene products, ''are suspended
until further notice,'' state television
announced, The Associated Press said.
The announcement was described as a reaction
to ''brutal and cruel'' measures proposed
last week by the Commission for Assistance
to a Free Cuba, a Cabinet-level group formed
in October and ordered by Bush to come up
with ways to speed the fall of Cuba's socialist
system.
The Cuban statement said the U.S. proposals
''are directly aimed at strangling our development
and reducing to a minimum the resources
in hard currency that are essential for
the necessities of food, medical and educational
services and other essentials,'' the AP
reported.
The scope of the new measure and details
on the implementation were not immediately
clear, but broadcasters hinted that the
dollar stores may reopen with even higher
prices than their already-inflated prices.
The suspension means those with access to
dollars will no longer be able to purchase
shoes, clothing and other so-called luxury
items in the same manner.
HARD TIMES AHEAD
The announcement warned that ''days of
work and sacrifice await'' and indicated
that "the brutality of the measures
adopted by the U.S. government sadly will
raise prices.''
Observers said the decree signaled that
President Fidel Castro was ready to play
hard-ball by creating panic in the Cuban
population in response to the measures in
the 500-page commission report unveiled
in Washington last week. The move also may
be a tactic to create an infusion of dollars
in the Cuban economy.
''The Cuban government is going to attempt
to portray the Bush administration's decisions
as detrimental to the quality of life for
the 11.2 million citizens on the island,''
said John Kavulich, president of U.S.-Cuba
Trade and Economic Council, a New York-based
organization that monitors Cuba's economy.
''This is another measure to keep the grasp
on Cuban society,'' said Andy Gomez, a senior
fellow at the University of Miami's Institute
for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. "This
has tremendous psychological impact. It
emphasizes that those who get help face
reprisals.''
Many Cubans depend on dollar stores to
purchase goods that are either not available
or are of poor quality at the state-run
shops that accept Cuban pesos. The dollar
stores have flourished since the economic
collapse that followed the fall of the former
Soviet Union and an end to subsidies in
the early 1990s.
EFFECTS ON LIFE
If maintained, the measure could have dramatic
effects on life in Cuba. Cash remittances
are a core element of the Cuban economy.
At least $400 million to $600 million are
sent to the island each year in cash transfers.
Among the immediate actions outlined in
the U.S. commission report is restricting
annual remittances of $1,200 sent by Cuban
Americans only to immediate relatives on
the island. Members of Cuba's Communist
Party, estimated at some 800,000 people,
also would be barred from receiving cash
transfers.
The recommendations also limit family visits
by Cuban Americans to once in three years
instead of the current one per year and
cuts the authorized per diem for a family
visit from $164 to $50.
Policy on Cuba will cost Bush votes,
group warns
A group of exiles says
new restrictions on travel to Cuba will
hurt relatives on the island -- not Fidel
Castro's government.
By Luisa Yanez. lyanez@herald.com.
Posted on Tue, May. 11, 2004
A new Bush administration policy limiting
travel and cash remittances to Cuba will
cost the president votes in South Florida
come November, a group of exiles who favor
eased relations with the island warned Monday.
Four days after President Bush's announcement,
leaders of five organizations said at a
press conference they will encourage exiles
to work against the president's reelection
-- putting them at odds with other exiles
who support Bush's new policy.
''Some 140,000 Cuban exiles visited the
island last year; 100,000 of those lived
in South Florida,'' said Andres Gomez, head
of the Antonio Maceo Brigade. "This
will mean many of those who can't travel
to the island will vote against Bush --
and for a candidate who allows travel to
Cuba.''
The group of exiles, who often stage political
battles with staunch anti-Castro exiles
because they favor an easing of the U.S.
embargo on the island, called the new restrictions
''a violation of their civil rights.'' The
restrictions will be a blow to the Cuban
people who depend on money from relatives
in Miami-Dade and elsewhere in the United
States to get by, they said.
Without their ragtag humanitarian aid,
their relatives, not Fidel Castro's government,
will suffer, they said.
''This is a political mistake and it's
inhumane,'' said Max Lesnick of the Alianza
Martiana. ''This will boomerang'' on the
administration.
But other groups such as the powerful Cuban
American National Foundation support tighter
travel restrictions.
The group that held the press conference
blamed the tightening of rules on ''the
Cuban right who have no feelings for those
on the island,'' Gomez said.
Last week, Bush said he will cut back Cuban
Americans' family visits to the island from
once a year to once every three years.
He'll also limit the length of a visit
to 14 days, cut the amount U.S. visitors
can spend there, and limit which relatives
can travel there.
He also will restrict who can receive money,
which can no longer be sent to individuals
but only to a single household.
The president called for spending an extra
$45 million over the next two years, putting
the tighter sanctions in place and also
the purchase of an airplane to better fight
Cuba's jamming of Radio and TV Martí.
Felix Ramirez, 51, who arrived in the United
States in 1969 and says he visits the island
three times a year and sends cash to relatives
regularly, said he has a terminally ill
sister in Matanzas. He fears he won't see
her again.
''She's dying,'' he said. "In three
years, she'll be dead and buried and I can
visit her bones in some cemetery.''
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