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U.S.-Cuba policy is personal
for Shoreline dad
By Alex Fryer, Seattle Times
staff reporter. The
Seattle Times, WA, April 25, 2005.
Carlos Lazo has floated in shark-infested
waters, faced down enemy mortars and traveled
across a continent to build a new life.
This week, the Cuban immigrant and Washington
National Guardsman will take on another
challenge: lobbying Congress to change American
foreign policy toward his homeland.
Lazo, 40, will be the star attraction of
"Cuba Action Day," Wednesday in
Washington, D.C., an event sponsored by
lawmakers and advocacy groups who want to
loosen travel restrictions to the island
nation.
A medic who served with the Marines during
the battle of Fallujah, Lazo said the restrictions,
which went into effect last summer, prevent
him from visiting his two teenage sons in
Havana more than once every three years.
Traveling to Capitol Hill places Lazo at
the center of the effort to reform Cuba
policy. It's an uncomfortable role to play,
given the decades-long acrimony surrounding
the issue.
"Sometimes you are in a place you
don't choose to be. I'm a very private person,"
said Lazo, who lives in a Shoreline apartment
with his wife and her daughter. He returned
from Iraq on March 3 and remains in the
Guard.
KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Carlos Lazo became a symbol in the debate
over U.S. policy toward Cuba last summer
after he was unable to visit his sons, Carlos
Manuel Lazo, 18, at left in photo, and Carlos
Rafael Lazo, 16.
"I always believe in doing my duty,
even if I had a chance of losing my life
in Iraq. I also believe in doing my duty
as a father."
Lazo's odyssey began when he floated on
a raft from Cuba to Key West, Fla., in 1992,
leaving behind two sons and an ex-wife.
He became a U.S. citizen and settled in
Miami. Within a week of reading a magazine
article about great places to live, Lazo
moved to Seattle.
Now a counselor for the state Department
of Social and Health Services, Lazo signed
up for the National Guard after the February
2001 Nisqually earthquake. "I wanted
to do something to help the community,"
he said.
In November 2003, he and thousands of other
citizen soldiers were called to active duty.
He was deployed to Iraq and assigned to
a Marine unit spearheading the Fallujah
offensive. He was in a group with two other
Latin American medics who formed what they
called the "Latin Team."
"We'd sing together in Spanish. It
kept our spirits up and helped us make sure
the other one was alive when the bullets
were flying past our heads," he told
a military reporter for an article on his
unit.
In June 2004, he took a two-week leave
to travel to Miami, where he hoped to board
a plane to Havana to visit his sons, whom
he hadn't seen since April 2003.
Traveling to Washington, D.C., for Cuba
Action Day, Carlos Lazo, 40, a member of
the National Guard, will take his military
uniform.
But pandemonium met him at the airport.
New travel rules set to go into effect
on June 30 limited Cuban Americans to one
visit every three years rather than the
previous limit of once a year.
As the deadline approached, the State Department
told charter airlines to leave Miami empty
and pick up travelers in Havana who needed
to get back to the U.S.
That left dozens of people fuming at the
airport, including Lazo, who told a news
crew from the Hispanic Telemundo TV network
that he was a soldier on leave who wouldn't
be able to see his family in Cuba until
2006.
The interview sparked a wave of interest
from other media outlets.
MSNBC sent a camera crew to interview Lazo's
two teenage sons in Havana. His case was
highlighted in a New York Times editorial,
and he wrote an opinion piece published
in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
On April 13, U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle,
wrote a letter to the Treasury Department,
which grants travel licenses to Cuba, asking
for an exception for Lazo.
"It is my hope that his government
will honor this young man's service and
sacrifice, and let him see his kids as soon
as possible," wrote McDermott.
The Treasury Department has not responded.
But Lazo caught the attention of others
trying to influence U.S. foreign policy.
Sarah Stevens, of the left-leaning Center
for International Policy, is an organizer
for Cuba Action Day. She said Lazo's military
background makes him the perfect pitchman
for changing minds in Washington.
"We are really trying to show that
this isn't about just Cuban Americans. It's
about Americans, and Americans should have
the right to travel."
Last year, the House voted to rescind the
travel restrictions. During the debate,
U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., a supporter
of the amendment, displayed a photograph
of Lazo on the House floor.
Facing a veto threat from President Bush,
the measure later was dropped.
The flap was only the latest twist in the
decades-long debate over U.S.-Cuba relations.
While initially recognizing the government
of Fidel Castro in 1959, the U.S. government
established an embargo in 1960 as Cuba embraced
one-party rule. Diplomatic relations broke
off in January 1961.
For decades, policy makers and Cuban Americans
have walked a fine line between trying to
support relatives in Cuba while at the same
time seeking to undermine the Castro regime.
The travel restrictions were intended to
prevent Cuban expatriates living in the
U.S. from pumping dollars into Cuba's cash-starved
economy, said Treasury Department spokeswoman
Molly Millerwise. "This was part of
the Bush administration efforts to keep
American dollars out of Castro's hands."
She would not comment on Lazo's case specifically
but noted that some families have protested
the policy. "We stand by the fact that
the sanctions are in place to hasten the
day when Cuba can be free," she said.
Even Cuban Americans are not of one mind
about the travel restrictions.
Groups such as the Cuban Committee for
Democracy, which claims to represent "the
more-moderate sector of the Cuban-American
community," want to end the limitations.
On the other side of the debate, the Miami-based
Cuban American National Foundation opposes
any trade or tourism with Cuba and adamantly
rejects legislative tinkering with the current
policy.
"We understand the value of family
contact," said Camila Ruiz, government
director of the foundation. "But my
mother hasn't gone back for 46 years [since
Fidel Castro assumed power]. That's a tremendous
sacrifice."
Lazo said he is prepared to be called a
traitor by some factions in the Cuban-American
community, but he insisted that his desire
to see his children does not help the communist
government.
"How does not allowing families see
each other help democracy in Cuba?"
he asked. "Who could be a better ambassador
for democracy than myself if I go over there?"
Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com
Copyright
© 2005 The Seattle Times Company
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