[Mb-civic] The Last American in Havana

Fri Jul 9 14:07:45 PDT 2004

The Last American in Havana

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, AlterNet
 Posted on July 8, 2004, Printed on July 9, 2004
 http://www.alternet.org/story/19177/

The apprehension over the Bush administration's tough new crackdown on
American travel and commercial dealings with Cuba was evident in the voice
of the Cuban travel official who arranged my recent visit to Cuba under the
auspices of the International Literacy and Education Conference. The
conference, held annually, is an international gathering of educators,
scholars and writers. The travel agency was one of the dwindling few
American agencies licensed to handle educational and family visits by
Cuban-Americans to Cuba.

The regulations that took effect June 30 will virtually ban all travel by
Americans to Cuba, severely limit family visits by Cuban-Americans, slash
the amount of money that can be sent to or spent in the country, and wipe
out all sports and educational exchange programs. Since last October,
hundreds of Americans have been denied licenses to travel. Several have been
slapped with hefty fines, and referred for criminal prosecution. The
licenses of a dozen travel agencies have been suspended and the property and
assets of companies identified as Cuban controlled or owned by Cuban
nationals have been seized.

Under the new regulations, if I had sought official approval to travel to
the conference the day after I returned the request would have been denied.
At the Miami International airport, I, and other conference attendees, were
euphemistically branded "selectees." Homeland Security agents specially
trained to tightly scrutinize Americans attempting airline travel to Cuba
thoroughly worked us over.

The same apprehension in the travel agent's voice I heard in the voices of
Cubans I spoke to in a plaza near the old presidential palace on the streets
around the Capitolo, in Old Havana, at my hotel, and from an official tour
guide.

Some asked anxiously if I thought Bush would be defeated in November, and if
things would get better. Some Cubans groused about their plight, and the
ubiquitous posters throughout Havana exhorted them to fight fascism, and
defend the revolution, and the zealots in the neighborhood Committees for
the Defense of the Revolution hammered the U.S. But most seemed too
preoccupied with trying to eke out a living and make the best of an
increasingly deteriorating situation to engage in U.S. bashing.

In a bellicose speech to Cuban-American leaders in Miami in February that
sounded as much like a Bush campaign speech as a pitch for Cuban freedom,
Treasury Secretary John Snow promised that the tougher regulations would
tighten the noose around Fidel Castro. But after 45 years of the embargo,
and countless failed attempts to knock Castro off, a free market economy,
democratic elections and free press seem further than ever from reality in
Cuba. The embargo and the new tougher regulations make it even easier for
Castro to saber rattle the U.S. while deflecting criticism for the island's
growing economic woes, crime, black market dealings, and the comparatively
privileged lifestyle of Cuba's elite much evident in the upscale sections
near embassy row in Havana.

Though thousands of Havana's poor live in the stately, ornate homes on and
around the Malecon where Cuba's wealthy businesspersons and government top
cats lived in regal splendor before Castro seized power in 1959, the houses
are crumbling and in disrepair. The food rationing, the consumer goods
shortages, and the swarm of beggars, panhandlers, hustlers, and con artists
on the streets are stark evidence of Cuba's economic misery.

European, Japanese and increasingly Chinese firms and banks have done
business with Cuba for years, and European and Japanese made cars clog the
streets, and foreigners can charge transactions through Master card and Visa
though European banks. But it's American dollars that count the most, and
Cubans desperately want and need hard American cash to buy goods cheaper and
to further the island's development. The United Nations Economic Commission
for Latin America estimated that Cuban-Americans sent nearly $1 billion to
family members on the island in 1996. That figure soared during the slight
relaxation on travel by Cuban-Americans to the nation during the Clinton
administration. At the hotel, when I asked to exchange a few American
dollars for Cuban pesos, the manager implored me to keep my dollars.

During the past decade, the U.N. General Assembly has repeatedly condemned
the embargo. In that same time, the Soviet Union has collapsed, China has
marched toward a free market economy, and the U.S. has normalized relations
with Vietnam. The political sea change in those totalitarian countries was
accelerated by American cooperation rather than a get-tough approach. Even
many Cubans who staunchly oppose Castro say that the best way to loosen
Castro's lock, and push Cuba toward democratic reform is to relax
restrictions. Even with the embargo, throngs of young people on the streets,
clad in Hip Hop dress and sporting MTV hairstyles, are enthralled by
American culture and consumerism.

But for now, a thaw in Cuban-American relations remains a pipe dream. And
the apprehension that I heard in the voices of many Cubans will remain.