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CounterPunch
February
21, 2003
Contradiction or Conscious Policy?
Why Americans
Can't Travel to Cuba
by NELSON P. VALDÉS
The Sunday issue of the San Francisco Chronicle
(FEBRUARY 16, 2003) noted that "U.S. feds get tough on Americans
who visit Cuba." The author quoted a U.S. official who stated
that the US Treasury Department does not allow U.S. citizens
to travel to Cuba because it seeks to deny the Cuban government
the income that could be generated from such visits.
YET, the U.S. government allows Cuban
Americans to travel to the island, at least every 12 months.
Thus, the dollars of Cuban Americans can be spent in Cuba; but
the dollars from non-Cuba born US citizens cannot. Why such policy?
Because the U.S. government assumes that when the Cuban Americans
travel to the island they will not support the Cuban regime.
But the US government assumes that the average American will
find the island and its government acceptable and perhaps even
delightful.
Assuming that we have 700,000 Cubans
in the US and assuming that half of them--350,000 were to remmit
half of what is legally allowed during a year, then the island
would receive the modest sum of $210 million. BUT, conservative
estimates tell us that Cuban Americans send to their relatives
about $800 million yearly. Eventually that money enters the Cuban
economy.
MOREOVER, Cuban Americans are not the
exception when it comes to the remittances of funds to the island.
ANY United States citizen is permitted to send $100 per month
to Cuba. Yes, everyone in the United States, regardless of age,
sex, gender identity, political position, color or any type identity
can send $1200 US dollars to Cuba, per year.
Let us assume that Americans were persuaded
to send $100 to Cubans across the Straight of Florida, on a monthly
basis. And suppose that 100 million Americans did so. It is legal.
That would come to $120 billion dollars per year. If that was
done, the Cubans could turn around and offer 100 million Americans
a "fully hosted" stay in the island. In other words,
the Americans could travel to Cuba without spending any money,
stay at the best hotels, free of charge, paid by the very Cuban
family that pocketed the monthly American remittances.
Think about THAT. You can send $1200
to a Cuban in the island, but you cannot spend $1200 staying
in a hotel and consuming food.
Perhaps Americans could travel to Cuba
and be fully hosted, stay at the best of hotels, without having
to pay. All you need to do is to begin those remittances.
Why the contradiction?
Simple. The US government, in the final
analysis, is not opposed to people sending up to $1200 to the
island; what they do not want is for Americans TO SEE the place!
Why not?
The answer is obvious.
Nelson Valdes
is a professor of sociology specializing in Latin America at
the University of New Mexico. He can be reached at: nvaldes@unm.edu
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