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Bush policy cuts volunteers
who help ordinary Cubans
By Gary Marx, Chicago
Tribune. Posted on Sun, Oct. 16, 2005
in The Mercury News, Costa Rica.
HAVANA - It's not every day that you see
50 American volunteers dressed in T-shirts
and shorts assembling a state-of-the-art
playground in the working-class neighborhood
of Santa Amalia.
But there they were late last month, straining
to finish the climbing wall and monkey bars
as a crowd of astonished schoolchildren,
teachers and residents looked on.
Among the volunteers building four playgrounds
around Havana for It's Just the Kids, a
San Diego County non-profit group, was Mike
Mazza, a 27-year-old landscaper from Chicago's
Roscoe Village neighborhood who joined the
project to help Cuban children while relishing
the opportunity to visit a country that
is increasingly off-limits to Americans.
"How many chances in your life are
you going to be able to come to Cuba?''
Mazza asked. "It's just a unique opportunity
to get to know the people and the country.''
American humanitarian organizations such
as the one building the playgrounds are
permitted to operate in Cuba under an exemption
to the 43-year-old trade embargo if they
can secure a special license from the U.S.
government.
For years such groups delivered medicine
for HIV/AIDS patients, wheelchairs and walkers
for the disabled, bicycles for hospital
workers and other goods that are in short
supply.
But two years ago, President Bush tightened
trade and travel restrictions to Cuba in
an effort to cripple the local economy and
topple President Fidel Castro.
An appropriations bill is expected to come
to the Senate floor Monday; Sen. Byron Dorgan,
D-N.D., plans to offer an amendment to prohibit
funding to the Treasury Department that
would be used to enforce the travel ban.
The same amendment has been approved several
times in the past, only to be removed by
Republican leadership.
While it is impossible to measure the impact
of the trade and travel restrictions on
the amount of American humanitarian aid
delivered to Cuba, many aid groups say the
current environment has hindered their ability
to operate on the island.
"We've been working in Cuba for 10
years, and this is the most difficult time
we've had,'' said Rusty Price, president
of World Reach, a North Carolina-based group
that ships donated medical supplies to Cuba.
Price said it took eight months to get
his latest license from U.S. authorities
to ship goods to Cuba. In previous years
it usually took 60 days. On the Cuban side,
Price says he senses a "change in climate.
There's more scrutiny at customs and immigration.''
Cuban officials blame the increased tensions
on the Bush administration, which has sharply
curtailed the number of U.S. visitors to
Cuba while increasing support for the island's
opposition movement.
In a report issued last month, Cuban officials
said the number of American visitors fell
to about 108,172 last year from 200,859
in 2003.
But Cuban authorities say the tightened
sanctions also have cut U.S. medical, food
and other humanitarian assistance from $10
million in 2000 to a projected $4 million
this year.
The number of U.S. groups providing assistance
to Cuba also has fallen, from about 160
to about 20 during the same period, according
to Cuban authorities.
"There has been a lot of repression
against these groups,'' said Raciel Proenza,
an official at Cuba's Ministry of Foreign
Investment and Economic Cooperation. "We
consider that these measures are part of
a hardening of the blockade taken by the
Bush administration.''
Molly Millerwise, an official of the U.S.
Treasury Department, which issues licenses
to Americans traveling to Cuba under the
Office of Foreign Assets Control, denied
that the Bush administration is restricting
aid to Cuba.
Millerwise said authorities act only against
organizations that are abusing the humanitarian
licenses by allowing Americans to travel
to Cuba as tourists, which is illegal under
the embargo.
"The Bush administration supports
the export of humanitarian aid to Cuba,
much of which they are starved for under
Castro's rule,'' Millerwise said. "We
of course want to ensure that aid is benefiting
the Cuban people and not the Castro government.''
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