Time Magazine
Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007
Keeping Up the Hard Line on Cuba
By Tim Padgett/Miami
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1676501,00.html
Few would argue that democracy and human rights are as rare in Cuba as meat and modern appliances. That was duly underscored on Wednesday when President Bush invited the relatives of jailed Cuban dissidents to the State Department for his first policy speech on Cuba in four years. But any expectation of a major policy shift was dissipated after listening to the President. Bush simply gussied up some of the same old bromides — "The socialist paradise is a tropical gulag" — that have marked U.S.-Cuban relations for decades.
Bush reiterated his hard stance against lifting the 45-year-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba if the seriously ill Fidel Castro, as expected, is succeeded by his brother Raul, who already runs the government. Predictably, Fidel said Bush's speech reflected the U.S.'s desire to "reconquer" Cuba. And the Castro brothers aren't exactly cowed by these traditional verbal assaults. They have thrived on it in the past: heated U.S. rhetoric usually bolsters their image at home as the island's anti-Yanqui defenders. With plenty of material support from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela (about 90,000 barrels of oil per day on highly favorable finance terms), the embargo, though still onerous, is not as painful as it once was.
As a result, critics of Bush's Cuba policy argue his address simply helped preserve rather than undermine Cuba's nebulous status quo. And they're urging Washington again to consider stepped up contact with Raul Castro — widely regarded as more pragmatically flexible than Fidel — as a more effective means of jump-starting a democratic transition. "President Bush is right when he says this is a unique moment in Cuba, but he's missing that moment," says Jake Colvin, director of USA Engage in Washington, which favors moves like lifting the ban on U.S. travel to Cuba — something even most Cuban-Americans in Miami now favor, and which many Cuba watchers suggest the Castros actually fear. Bush insisted that engaging Cuba now would just give "oxygen to a criminal regime." But, argues Colvin, "American citizens have always proven the best ambassadors of freedom and democracy."
Bush may also be alienating the very people he is reaching out to by suggesting Washington will be Cuba's post-Castro arbiter. In the eyes of ordinary Cuban citizens, that is perceived as surrogacy for the Miami Cuban exile community — whose anti-Castro hardliners, with their dreams of resurrecting a pre-Castro Cuba, are as disliked by many Cubans on the island as the Castros themselves are.
What's more, by attaching his Administration to Cuba's dissidents so publicly, Bush may actually compromise the position of the Castro critics who remain on the island, whose credibility often rests on being seen as a movement independent of the Miami exiles. In past interviews with TIME and other media groups, Oswaldo Paya, an engineer who is the most prominent of Cuba's dissidents, says he is uncomfortable whenever the White House tries to coopt him and his colleagues. He says it simply makes their goals more difficult to achieve.
*********
My letter to the editor response:
The completely counterproductive character of President Bush's speech on Cuba is demonstrated by the Cubans printing half of it in Granma and putting him on TV for 15 minutes.
Congress must be pressed to restore now the right of all Americans to travel freely to establish people to people contact with Cubans.
(Readers should consider signing our letter to Congressional leaders and call or write their own Representative and Senators.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/congresstravel/ )
The Presidential candidates must also be challenged to say what they will do if elected. Dodd and Kucinich have called for ending all travel restrictions; Obama, Richardson and Edwards favor only ending restrictions on travel by Cuban Americans. Clinton has embraced the Bush policy rather than that of her husband. Paul is the only Republican who favors ending travel restrictions.
http://candidatecubawatch.blogspot.com/
Friday, October 26, 2007
Newsday Column Response to Bush Speech
Bush's hardline Cuba policy buys Castro more time
James Klurfeld
Newsday, October 26, 2007
OK, we all understand what President George W. Bush was really up to in the speech he gave on Wednesday about Cuba.
In asserting that Cuba would have to change its government before the United States would end its decades-long economic embargo of the island, he was really saying: We are about to enter a presidential election year, and Cuban-Americans who continue to favor a hard-line U.S. approach are an important voting bloc in a swing state like Florida.
But that doesn't mean that Bush's policy makes any sense. It doesn't. In fact, his policy doesn't make any more sense now than the policy of isolation followed for the past 40-plus years by both Democratic and Republican regimes. And there are at least some indications that even some in the Cuban-American community are beginning to realize that a policy of active engagement, of allowing U.S. citizens to visit Cuba - not to mention opening trade and cultural relations - might well have more impact on forcing change in Cuba than the stale, old policy of isolation.
"Life on the island will not improve," said Bush, "by exchanging one dictator for another. It will not improve if we seek accommodation with a new tyranny in the interests of stability."
The president was referring to the fact that Fidel Castro's brother, Raul, seems to have been running the country ever since Fidel took seriously ill last year. Bush said he was ready to allow cultural and information exchanges with Cuba ... but the regime had to show it was embracing democratic principles first. And he called for an open rebellion by the Cuban people.
This not only smacks of the Yankee arrogance that has been so repugnant over the years to many in Latin America, especially Cubans of all political stripes, it's a policy that has its priorities exactly wrong. If we learned anything from the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and 1990s, it was that exposure to Western principles of openness and free markets were critical factors in eroding the already discredited Communist regimes there. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says in his autobiography that one of the greatest influences on his own thinking came from his travels to Western Europe and Canada before he took power.
This principle is so self-evident that Bush's rhetoric sounds like a "Saturday Night Live" parody of a Red-baiting pol from decades ago. Calling on the Cuban people to throw out the Castro brothers and establish a democratic regime as a prerequisite to a U.S. opening is stunningly wrong-headed.
I traveled to Cuba some years ago (before Bush took office, when it was easier to do) and found that the people there didn't need to be told that the Communist revolution had been a bust. You could see it in the dilapidated roads and infrastructure, in the lack of adequate housing, in young people's thirst for knowledge about the outside world and access to the Internet, in their private disdain and quiet mockery of Fidel himself.
After the Soviet Union fell and could no longer prop up Castro's government with huge subsidies, the regime almost went under. It was only by loosening state economic control that it was able to survive. That's when Western European countries and others, including China, began to make large economic investments in Cuba - investments that U.S. companies have missed out on.
The argument isn't about whether we should have any admiration for Castro's Communist Cuba. That verdict has already been made by history, and it's thumbs down. The question is how to best bring about change.
I came away from my trip believing that the Castro brothers would never really accept U.S. offers for a better relationship because they know such exchanges would only speed their demise and their failed system's reformation.
Now I imagine the brothers are applauding Bush's hard-line speech. It's just what they need to stay in power a little longer.
Copyright © 2007, Newsday Inc.
James Klurfeld
Newsday, October 26, 2007
OK, we all understand what President George W. Bush was really up to in the speech he gave on Wednesday about Cuba.
In asserting that Cuba would have to change its government before the United States would end its decades-long economic embargo of the island, he was really saying: We are about to enter a presidential election year, and Cuban-Americans who continue to favor a hard-line U.S. approach are an important voting bloc in a swing state like Florida.
But that doesn't mean that Bush's policy makes any sense. It doesn't. In fact, his policy doesn't make any more sense now than the policy of isolation followed for the past 40-plus years by both Democratic and Republican regimes. And there are at least some indications that even some in the Cuban-American community are beginning to realize that a policy of active engagement, of allowing U.S. citizens to visit Cuba - not to mention opening trade and cultural relations - might well have more impact on forcing change in Cuba than the stale, old policy of isolation.
"Life on the island will not improve," said Bush, "by exchanging one dictator for another. It will not improve if we seek accommodation with a new tyranny in the interests of stability."
The president was referring to the fact that Fidel Castro's brother, Raul, seems to have been running the country ever since Fidel took seriously ill last year. Bush said he was ready to allow cultural and information exchanges with Cuba ... but the regime had to show it was embracing democratic principles first. And he called for an open rebellion by the Cuban people.
This not only smacks of the Yankee arrogance that has been so repugnant over the years to many in Latin America, especially Cubans of all political stripes, it's a policy that has its priorities exactly wrong. If we learned anything from the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and 1990s, it was that exposure to Western principles of openness and free markets were critical factors in eroding the already discredited Communist regimes there. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says in his autobiography that one of the greatest influences on his own thinking came from his travels to Western Europe and Canada before he took power.
This principle is so self-evident that Bush's rhetoric sounds like a "Saturday Night Live" parody of a Red-baiting pol from decades ago. Calling on the Cuban people to throw out the Castro brothers and establish a democratic regime as a prerequisite to a U.S. opening is stunningly wrong-headed.
I traveled to Cuba some years ago (before Bush took office, when it was easier to do) and found that the people there didn't need to be told that the Communist revolution had been a bust. You could see it in the dilapidated roads and infrastructure, in the lack of adequate housing, in young people's thirst for knowledge about the outside world and access to the Internet, in their private disdain and quiet mockery of Fidel himself.
After the Soviet Union fell and could no longer prop up Castro's government with huge subsidies, the regime almost went under. It was only by loosening state economic control that it was able to survive. That's when Western European countries and others, including China, began to make large economic investments in Cuba - investments that U.S. companies have missed out on.
The argument isn't about whether we should have any admiration for Castro's Communist Cuba. That verdict has already been made by history, and it's thumbs down. The question is how to best bring about change.
I came away from my trip believing that the Castro brothers would never really accept U.S. offers for a better relationship because they know such exchanges would only speed their demise and their failed system's reformation.
Now I imagine the brothers are applauding Bush's hard-line speech. It's just what they need to stay in power a little longer.
Copyright © 2007, Newsday Inc.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Newshour: Noriega vs.Kornbluh
President Bush Outlines Cuban Policy Initiatives
President Bush proposed a new policy plan Wednesday to push for a democratic transition in Cuba, but he declined to lift an economic embargo on the nation. Two policy analysts assess the state of U.S.-Cuban relations.
KWAME HOLMAN: Fidel Castro is 81, ailing, and temporarily has handed power to his brother, Raul, who has promised to keep Cuba on its communist course. But today, President Bush laid out his program to push forward a transition to democracy in Cuba.
In his first major address on Cuba policy in four years, Mr. Bush criticized the Castro regime, but said there were stirrings for change.
GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: As we speak, calls for fundamental change are growing across the island. Peaceful demonstrations are spreading. Earlier this year, leading Cuban dissidents came together for the first time to issue the Unity of Freedom, a declaration for democratic change.
KWAME HOLMAN: And he said it was time for the U.S. and other democracies to encourage that change.
GEORGE W. BUSH: Now is the time to support the democratic movements growing on the island. Now is the time to stand with the Cuban people as they stand up for their liberty. And now is the time for the world to put aside its differences and prepare for Cuba's transition to a future of freedom and progress and promise.
KWAME HOLMAN: The president asserted that the U.S. provided Cuba with more than $270 million in privately raised aid last year and was ready to do more. Mr. Bush offered three specific ideas: expanded Internet access to Cuban students; and an invitation to Cuban youth to join a Latin American scholarship program; he also called for the creation of an international fund to help a democratic Cuba build a free-market economy.
But the president said he would not lift the decades-old U.S. economic embargo or travel restrictions to Cuba. President Bush then made a direct appeal to the Cuban people.
GEORGE W. BUSH: To those Cubans who are listening, perhaps at great risk, I would like to speak to you directly. Some of you are members of the Cuban military or the police or officials in the government. You may have once believed in the revolution; now you can see its failure.
When Cubans rise up to demand their liberty, the liberty they deserve, you've got to make a choice. Will you defend a disgraced and dying order by using force against your own people, or will you embrace your people's desire for change?
To the ordinary Cubans who are listening, you have the power to shape your own destiny. You can bring about a future where your leaders answer to you, where you can freely express your beliefs, and where your children can grow up in peace. And you can carry this refrain your heart: Su dia ya viene llegando. Your day is coming soon.
KWAME HOLMAN: Castro, for his part, published an essay Tuesday accusing President Bush of threatening "humanity with World War III."
Putting a face on Cuba's struggles
JIM LEHRER: And to Margaret Warner.
MARGARET WARNER: For more on the president's latest Cuba initiative, we turn to Roger Noriega, who served as assistant secretary of state for Latin America and ambassador to the Organization of American States earlier in the Bush administration. He's now a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
And Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, a group that pushes to declassify and publish secret U.S. government documents. He is also author and editor of several books on Latin America.
Welcome to you both.
Roger Noriega, you were in the audience today at the White House. What is President Bush trying to accomplish with this speech?
ROGER NORIEGA, American Enterprise Institute: Well, I think, first and foremost, the president is putting a human face on the tragic reality of Cuba today. Castro is a relic, but his regime is still a reality for seven million Cubans who live in oppression. And it was his idea to have, for example, the wives of Cuban prisoners of conscience there for all the world to see and to highlight that this is a human cost.
The second thing I think he wanted to do in a very dramatic fashion is challenge the diplomatic corps to get on the right side of history, that it's never too late to be on the side of the Cuban people.
MARGARET WARNER: You're talking about now the countries that do have relations with Cuba?
ROGER NORIEGA: Exactly, the many countries. He singled out Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary for doing good things to help and challenged, really, the others to step forward and, at this crucial hour, be more proactive in supporting the efforts of the Cuban people to reclaim their future.
MARGARET WARNER: But what was he trying to do with the Cuban people when he says, "You can shape your own future"? I mean, is he calling for an armed rebellion or a sort of Velvet Revolution, a la Eastern Europe?
ROGER NORIEGA: I think he's calling on them to decide and reminding them that this is the time to do so, to step forward, to claim their country and their future. And it is for them to decide how to do that and remind them that there is international solidarity for their cause and that the cause of freedom is really on the right side and has momentum in the world and they need to be part of that future.
Analyzing the dissident movement
MARGARET WARNER: So, Peter Kornbluh, how did this strike you as a plan, or a game plan, or a blueprint for pushing post-Castro Cuba in a more democratic direction?
PETER KORNBLUH, Cuba Documentation Project: You know, what struck me was how the president talked the big talk but really wielded a very, very small stick and how ineffectual and somewhat unrealistic his proposals were and his view of what's going on today in Cuba is.
There is no significant dissident movement to support. There is no overthrow or regime change coming over the horizon in Cuba. For the last year-and-a-half, this administration has sat on the sidelines, while an actual transition from Fidel Castro to his brother, Raul, has taken place and taken place rather dramatically, tranquilly and smoothly, with no mass exodus, no fragmentation of the regime itself.
MARGARET WARNER: What tells you, though, that there isn't the prospect that when Castro actually dies, Fidel Castro actually dies, that there would be sort of a mass outpouring, a demand for change?
PETER KORNBLUH: If that was going to have happened, it would have happened last August, a year ago August after Fidel transferred power. Fidel Castro may or may not be dying, but it's clear that his regime is still rather strong.
The economy is growing. They have new very strong relations, economically and politically, with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. China is investing in Cuba. There really is no sign of instability. And so everything that the president said today and the proposals that he made really aren't going to strike a chord inside Cuba or with the international community, for that matter.
Siding with the Cuban people
MARGARET WARNER: Do you have countervailing evidence that, in fact, there is a sort of ripe environment there for this call?
ROGER NORIEGA: Well, the evidence is all around us. It's all around the globe. And the president reminded people that there are those who bet against freedom and they turned up on the wrong side of history. There are those who said that the Soviet Union was sturdy and strong and resilient. And five or six years later, it was gone.
But I wouldn't want to bet against or be accused of betting against the aspirations of the Cuban people to win their freedom. We need to be proactive; I think that is true. And we need to be helpful.
But there is a group -- there is not this tranquil transition going on. There is an effort by Castro to sustain the regime even after Fidel's death. And that is really a violent reality for seven million Cuban people. And I don't think we should be sanguine about that.
I think we should be on the side of the Cuban people. We should be encouraging the international community to be more active, to communicate with the island, to challenge the regime, to bring about real change. They probably won't do so, but hopefully, when the Cuban people stand up, people like my friend here and people around the world and in other capitals will say, "No, we're going to be on the right side of history. We're going to be on the side of the Cuban people as they claim their legitimate freedoms."
MARGARET WARNER: Now, of course, in the meanwhile, he was not suggesting any change in American policy. That is, the trade embargo will continue. And, Peter Kornbluh, he said to start trading with Cuba would just enrich the regime. Is he right?
PETER KORNBLUH: Well, the embargo is what stands in the way of the United States having any leverage or influence in Cuba for the future. If we had normal relations with Cuba, we would have trade, we would have cultural exchanges. We would have the things that we had with the Soviet Union and with the Eastern Bloc countries when those changes took place there.
And other countries have trade with Cuba, and other countries are in there in a dialogue and with the Cuban people. I think the rest of the world is out in front of the United States. And the United States has essentially been relegated to the sidelines of this issue because of its policy.
ROGER NORIEGA: Well, I think the president made very clear that we're not going to make unilateral concessions to revive a regime that's breathing its last, dying breaths. And I think it just doesn't make any sense, if it ever did, to make unilateral concessions to the one guy who is the obstacle to political and economic freedom for the people.
U.S. influence in Cuba
MARGARET WARNER: But what about Peter Kornbluh's point that it diminishes the U.S. ability to have leverage?
ROGER NORIEGA: Oh, I think the U.S. is the most influential country in the world from the standpoint of Cuba. The president made that point to the military leaders, the would-be repressors. He made the point to the Cuban people that this is the time for a national reconciliation and to their oppressors: If you get in the way, it would be a tragedy, for one thing, if one more drop of blood, of Cuban blood, is shed in the service of this failed Fidel Castro, this project of Fidel Castro's, and they will be held accountable.
Those are the sorts of messages and the message that we will use our leverage, economic and political relations, as an incentive to reform and a reward to people who bring about real change in Cuba.
MARGARET WARNER: What did you make of that message to the military and government and police?
PETER KORNBLUH: Well, I thought it was an effort by the president to divide the Cuban military, to try to get them to peel off from the regime. I thought his call to the Cuban people to kind of take these matters into their own hands was almost exhorting them to rise up and then telling the military not to shoot them if they did.
President Bush said very clearly: We're on the side of democracy, not on the side of stability. And that puts the United States perhaps on the side of instability and fomenting instability in Cuba, which will lead to violence and bloodshed that nobody wants to see that and that U.S. policy has the opportunity to prevent, if bridges are built with Cuba in the foreseeable future.
MARGARET WARNER: But you said earlier you don't really think that the Cuban people are going to rise up.
PETER KORNBLUH: I do not see that happening, unless the United States puts its mind to instigating instability in Cuba.
MARGARET WARNER: All right, we have to leave it there. Roger Noriega, Peter Kornbluh, thank you both.
PETER KORNBLUH: Thank you.
**************
My on-line comment to Kwame Holman lead-in to the segment
Lead-ins don't leave a lot of space for nuance, but I would ask you to reexamine this language: " his brother, Raul, who has promised to keep Cuba on its communist course".
If you have a chance, take a look at the coverage of the process underway in Cuba today, as reported in the Economist, Reuters, and, even more amazingly by the Cubans themselves. http://internalreform.blogspot.com/
Having been closely involved in the process of normalization of US-Vietnam relations and the self-transformation in communist Vietnam since the Sixth Party Congress in 1986, I find interesting analogies to what I am now observing in my work for normalization between the US and Cuba, and the economic and social reform process to which Raul has opened the door.
The tragedy of President Bush's speech is that it is driven by one part anachronistic ideology and one part domestic South Florida interest group politics. He has crippled both our understandiing and our potential positive impact on what is actually going on in Cuba today.
Either the President or the Congress need to quickly end travel restrictions, preferably for all Americans, but at least for the kind of family and purposeful people to people exchanges that existed in the late Clinton and early Bush administrations.
Unfortunately this topic was not fully addressed in an otherwise illuminating segment.
President Bush proposed a new policy plan Wednesday to push for a democratic transition in Cuba, but he declined to lift an economic embargo on the nation. Two policy analysts assess the state of U.S.-Cuban relations.
KWAME HOLMAN: Fidel Castro is 81, ailing, and temporarily has handed power to his brother, Raul, who has promised to keep Cuba on its communist course. But today, President Bush laid out his program to push forward a transition to democracy in Cuba.
In his first major address on Cuba policy in four years, Mr. Bush criticized the Castro regime, but said there were stirrings for change.
GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: As we speak, calls for fundamental change are growing across the island. Peaceful demonstrations are spreading. Earlier this year, leading Cuban dissidents came together for the first time to issue the Unity of Freedom, a declaration for democratic change.
KWAME HOLMAN: And he said it was time for the U.S. and other democracies to encourage that change.
GEORGE W. BUSH: Now is the time to support the democratic movements growing on the island. Now is the time to stand with the Cuban people as they stand up for their liberty. And now is the time for the world to put aside its differences and prepare for Cuba's transition to a future of freedom and progress and promise.
KWAME HOLMAN: The president asserted that the U.S. provided Cuba with more than $270 million in privately raised aid last year and was ready to do more. Mr. Bush offered three specific ideas: expanded Internet access to Cuban students; and an invitation to Cuban youth to join a Latin American scholarship program; he also called for the creation of an international fund to help a democratic Cuba build a free-market economy.
But the president said he would not lift the decades-old U.S. economic embargo or travel restrictions to Cuba. President Bush then made a direct appeal to the Cuban people.
GEORGE W. BUSH: To those Cubans who are listening, perhaps at great risk, I would like to speak to you directly. Some of you are members of the Cuban military or the police or officials in the government. You may have once believed in the revolution; now you can see its failure.
When Cubans rise up to demand their liberty, the liberty they deserve, you've got to make a choice. Will you defend a disgraced and dying order by using force against your own people, or will you embrace your people's desire for change?
To the ordinary Cubans who are listening, you have the power to shape your own destiny. You can bring about a future where your leaders answer to you, where you can freely express your beliefs, and where your children can grow up in peace. And you can carry this refrain your heart: Su dia ya viene llegando. Your day is coming soon.
KWAME HOLMAN: Castro, for his part, published an essay Tuesday accusing President Bush of threatening "humanity with World War III."
Putting a face on Cuba's struggles
JIM LEHRER: And to Margaret Warner.
MARGARET WARNER: For more on the president's latest Cuba initiative, we turn to Roger Noriega, who served as assistant secretary of state for Latin America and ambassador to the Organization of American States earlier in the Bush administration. He's now a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
And Peter Kornbluh, director of the Cuba Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, a group that pushes to declassify and publish secret U.S. government documents. He is also author and editor of several books on Latin America.
Welcome to you both.
Roger Noriega, you were in the audience today at the White House. What is President Bush trying to accomplish with this speech?
ROGER NORIEGA, American Enterprise Institute: Well, I think, first and foremost, the president is putting a human face on the tragic reality of Cuba today. Castro is a relic, but his regime is still a reality for seven million Cubans who live in oppression. And it was his idea to have, for example, the wives of Cuban prisoners of conscience there for all the world to see and to highlight that this is a human cost.
The second thing I think he wanted to do in a very dramatic fashion is challenge the diplomatic corps to get on the right side of history, that it's never too late to be on the side of the Cuban people.
MARGARET WARNER: You're talking about now the countries that do have relations with Cuba?
ROGER NORIEGA: Exactly, the many countries. He singled out Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary for doing good things to help and challenged, really, the others to step forward and, at this crucial hour, be more proactive in supporting the efforts of the Cuban people to reclaim their future.
MARGARET WARNER: But what was he trying to do with the Cuban people when he says, "You can shape your own future"? I mean, is he calling for an armed rebellion or a sort of Velvet Revolution, a la Eastern Europe?
ROGER NORIEGA: I think he's calling on them to decide and reminding them that this is the time to do so, to step forward, to claim their country and their future. And it is for them to decide how to do that and remind them that there is international solidarity for their cause and that the cause of freedom is really on the right side and has momentum in the world and they need to be part of that future.
Analyzing the dissident movement
MARGARET WARNER: So, Peter Kornbluh, how did this strike you as a plan, or a game plan, or a blueprint for pushing post-Castro Cuba in a more democratic direction?
PETER KORNBLUH, Cuba Documentation Project: You know, what struck me was how the president talked the big talk but really wielded a very, very small stick and how ineffectual and somewhat unrealistic his proposals were and his view of what's going on today in Cuba is.
There is no significant dissident movement to support. There is no overthrow or regime change coming over the horizon in Cuba. For the last year-and-a-half, this administration has sat on the sidelines, while an actual transition from Fidel Castro to his brother, Raul, has taken place and taken place rather dramatically, tranquilly and smoothly, with no mass exodus, no fragmentation of the regime itself.
MARGARET WARNER: What tells you, though, that there isn't the prospect that when Castro actually dies, Fidel Castro actually dies, that there would be sort of a mass outpouring, a demand for change?
PETER KORNBLUH: If that was going to have happened, it would have happened last August, a year ago August after Fidel transferred power. Fidel Castro may or may not be dying, but it's clear that his regime is still rather strong.
The economy is growing. They have new very strong relations, economically and politically, with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. China is investing in Cuba. There really is no sign of instability. And so everything that the president said today and the proposals that he made really aren't going to strike a chord inside Cuba or with the international community, for that matter.
Siding with the Cuban people
MARGARET WARNER: Do you have countervailing evidence that, in fact, there is a sort of ripe environment there for this call?
ROGER NORIEGA: Well, the evidence is all around us. It's all around the globe. And the president reminded people that there are those who bet against freedom and they turned up on the wrong side of history. There are those who said that the Soviet Union was sturdy and strong and resilient. And five or six years later, it was gone.
But I wouldn't want to bet against or be accused of betting against the aspirations of the Cuban people to win their freedom. We need to be proactive; I think that is true. And we need to be helpful.
But there is a group -- there is not this tranquil transition going on. There is an effort by Castro to sustain the regime even after Fidel's death. And that is really a violent reality for seven million Cuban people. And I don't think we should be sanguine about that.
I think we should be on the side of the Cuban people. We should be encouraging the international community to be more active, to communicate with the island, to challenge the regime, to bring about real change. They probably won't do so, but hopefully, when the Cuban people stand up, people like my friend here and people around the world and in other capitals will say, "No, we're going to be on the right side of history. We're going to be on the side of the Cuban people as they claim their legitimate freedoms."
MARGARET WARNER: Now, of course, in the meanwhile, he was not suggesting any change in American policy. That is, the trade embargo will continue. And, Peter Kornbluh, he said to start trading with Cuba would just enrich the regime. Is he right?
PETER KORNBLUH: Well, the embargo is what stands in the way of the United States having any leverage or influence in Cuba for the future. If we had normal relations with Cuba, we would have trade, we would have cultural exchanges. We would have the things that we had with the Soviet Union and with the Eastern Bloc countries when those changes took place there.
And other countries have trade with Cuba, and other countries are in there in a dialogue and with the Cuban people. I think the rest of the world is out in front of the United States. And the United States has essentially been relegated to the sidelines of this issue because of its policy.
ROGER NORIEGA: Well, I think the president made very clear that we're not going to make unilateral concessions to revive a regime that's breathing its last, dying breaths. And I think it just doesn't make any sense, if it ever did, to make unilateral concessions to the one guy who is the obstacle to political and economic freedom for the people.
U.S. influence in Cuba
MARGARET WARNER: But what about Peter Kornbluh's point that it diminishes the U.S. ability to have leverage?
ROGER NORIEGA: Oh, I think the U.S. is the most influential country in the world from the standpoint of Cuba. The president made that point to the military leaders, the would-be repressors. He made the point to the Cuban people that this is the time for a national reconciliation and to their oppressors: If you get in the way, it would be a tragedy, for one thing, if one more drop of blood, of Cuban blood, is shed in the service of this failed Fidel Castro, this project of Fidel Castro's, and they will be held accountable.
Those are the sorts of messages and the message that we will use our leverage, economic and political relations, as an incentive to reform and a reward to people who bring about real change in Cuba.
MARGARET WARNER: What did you make of that message to the military and government and police?
PETER KORNBLUH: Well, I thought it was an effort by the president to divide the Cuban military, to try to get them to peel off from the regime. I thought his call to the Cuban people to kind of take these matters into their own hands was almost exhorting them to rise up and then telling the military not to shoot them if they did.
President Bush said very clearly: We're on the side of democracy, not on the side of stability. And that puts the United States perhaps on the side of instability and fomenting instability in Cuba, which will lead to violence and bloodshed that nobody wants to see that and that U.S. policy has the opportunity to prevent, if bridges are built with Cuba in the foreseeable future.
MARGARET WARNER: But you said earlier you don't really think that the Cuban people are going to rise up.
PETER KORNBLUH: I do not see that happening, unless the United States puts its mind to instigating instability in Cuba.
MARGARET WARNER: All right, we have to leave it there. Roger Noriega, Peter Kornbluh, thank you both.
PETER KORNBLUH: Thank you.
**************
My on-line comment to Kwame Holman lead-in to the segment
Lead-ins don't leave a lot of space for nuance, but I would ask you to reexamine this language: " his brother, Raul, who has promised to keep Cuba on its communist course".
If you have a chance, take a look at the coverage of the process underway in Cuba today, as reported in the Economist, Reuters, and, even more amazingly by the Cubans themselves. http://internalreform.blogspot.com/
Having been closely involved in the process of normalization of US-Vietnam relations and the self-transformation in communist Vietnam since the Sixth Party Congress in 1986, I find interesting analogies to what I am now observing in my work for normalization between the US and Cuba, and the economic and social reform process to which Raul has opened the door.
The tragedy of President Bush's speech is that it is driven by one part anachronistic ideology and one part domestic South Florida interest group politics. He has crippled both our understandiing and our potential positive impact on what is actually going on in Cuba today.
Either the President or the Congress need to quickly end travel restrictions, preferably for all Americans, but at least for the kind of family and purposeful people to people exchanges that existed in the late Clinton and early Bush administrations.
Unfortunately this topic was not fully addressed in an otherwise illuminating segment.
Baltimore Sun editorial
Same old, same old
October 25, 2007
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.cuba25oct25,0,2570875.story
When President Bush suggests, as he did yesterday, that the Cuban people should rise up against their despotic leader, he conveniently ignores the fact that U.S. policy toward Cuba has done little to spur a revolt. Decades of isolation - and his administration's toughening of the policy - haven't lessened Fidel Castro's hold on power or diminished the influence of his brother Raul, now serving as the de facto president since Mr. Castro took ill a year ago.
Indeed, the only Cubans who have benefited from U.S. policy are the thousands of refugees who are given a free pass to live here.
Mr. Bush's speech at the State Department was aimed at personalizing the plight of the Cuban people, and it was his first public response to the transition of power under way there. But it was no more than the same tough talk in support of the economic embargo against Havana, promotion of democracy efforts in the country, and a pitch to the international community to stand with the U.S. against the Castro regime.
For all his bluster, there is little he has done - and little he can do - to advance democracy, promote regime change or improve the daily lives of Cubans who remain on the island. (And the reality is that despite U.S. support for dissident groups in Cuba, democracy remains a distant ideal there.)
All of that would require an overhaul of U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba, which Mr. Bush is not about to attempt. And without a drastic change, the succession of Mr. Castro's brother seems inevitable, which leaves little hope for reform and even less for revolution, although Mr. Bush's attempt to include Cuba's military and police in a new Cuba does show that the administration can learn from its mistakes.
Mr. Bush's proposal to establish a "Freedom Fund for Cuba," a vehicle to rebuild the country's failing infrastructure with dollars from the U.S. and international community, was appealing. But it, too, is tied to a democratic transition, which wrongly assumes Mr. Castro's successor would move in that direction on his own, just to receive the funds.
A new administration, whether Democratic or Republican, should take up the idea and use it as an entree to direct talks. The next White House can't continue to ignore the leadership in Havana, even if the votes of Cuban-Americans depend on just such a myopic course.
To simply tweak the present policy would be a mistake for the United States and its interests in the region - and an affront to the Cuban people.
Copyright © 2007, The Baltimore Sun
October 25, 2007
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.cuba25oct25,0,2570875.story
When President Bush suggests, as he did yesterday, that the Cuban people should rise up against their despotic leader, he conveniently ignores the fact that U.S. policy toward Cuba has done little to spur a revolt. Decades of isolation - and his administration's toughening of the policy - haven't lessened Fidel Castro's hold on power or diminished the influence of his brother Raul, now serving as the de facto president since Mr. Castro took ill a year ago.
Indeed, the only Cubans who have benefited from U.S. policy are the thousands of refugees who are given a free pass to live here.
Mr. Bush's speech at the State Department was aimed at personalizing the plight of the Cuban people, and it was his first public response to the transition of power under way there. But it was no more than the same tough talk in support of the economic embargo against Havana, promotion of democracy efforts in the country, and a pitch to the international community to stand with the U.S. against the Castro regime.
For all his bluster, there is little he has done - and little he can do - to advance democracy, promote regime change or improve the daily lives of Cubans who remain on the island. (And the reality is that despite U.S. support for dissident groups in Cuba, democracy remains a distant ideal there.)
All of that would require an overhaul of U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba, which Mr. Bush is not about to attempt. And without a drastic change, the succession of Mr. Castro's brother seems inevitable, which leaves little hope for reform and even less for revolution, although Mr. Bush's attempt to include Cuba's military and police in a new Cuba does show that the administration can learn from its mistakes.
Mr. Bush's proposal to establish a "Freedom Fund for Cuba," a vehicle to rebuild the country's failing infrastructure with dollars from the U.S. and international community, was appealing. But it, too, is tied to a democratic transition, which wrongly assumes Mr. Castro's successor would move in that direction on his own, just to receive the funds.
A new administration, whether Democratic or Republican, should take up the idea and use it as an entree to direct talks. The next White House can't continue to ignore the leadership in Havana, even if the votes of Cuban-Americans depend on just such a myopic course.
To simply tweak the present policy would be a mistake for the United States and its interests in the region - and an affront to the Cuban people.
Copyright © 2007, The Baltimore Sun
Travel Ban Ignored
Americans flouting U.S. travel ban to see "forbidden fruit" of Cuba
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/21/07
BY WILL WEISSERT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Barack Obama would lift restrictions on visits by Cuban Americans to the hemisphere's only communist country if elected president.
A growing chorus of Democratic and Republican lawmakers would go even further, loosening the U.S. embargo enough to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba.
But thousands of U.S. tourists already travel to Cuba behind Washington's back, and many say being sneaky is part of the fun.Some are scrambling to get to the island while Fidel Castro is still alive, fearing the U.S. government could scrap the travel ban once he's gone and bring profound change to Cuba.
"The fact that you're not supposed to be there, that was the top for me," said Amit, 29, a New York City native who visited Cuba in September 2006, shortly after the 81-year-old Castro fell ill and ceded power to his younger brother.
"I was like, "It's time to go,' " said Amit, who asked that his full name not be published to avoid U.S. fines. "You just don't know what Cuba will be like after Castro's gone."
Traveling to Cuba is not illegal for Americans, but provisions of the Trading With the Enemy Act prohibit spending money here without authorization." If caught, unauthorized U.S. tourists can face civil fines of up to $55,000, though many settle for smaller amounts.
Since January 2006, 19 Americans have paid fines for sneaking to Cuba.
Obama would like to do away with tighter restrictions imposed by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2004 that limited educational and religious travel and reduced trips by Americans with family on the island to one every three years.
The U.S. Treasury Department issued 40,308 licenses for family travel last year, almost all to Cuban Americans, and the Cuban government counts these travelers as Cubans, not Americans.
Separately, Cuba said 20,100 Americans visited the country through June of this year, almost all presumably without U.S. permission.
Other than family members, the U.S. government granted permission 491 times for people involved in religious, educational and humanitarian projects. Some other Americans — including journalists and politicians — can come without licenses, though few do.
Cuba said about 37,000 Americans not of Cuban origin came in 2006 — down from the more than 84,500 it reported in 2003, before the latest restrictions.
The American Society of Travel Agents recently estimated that nearly 1.8 million Americans would visit in the first three years following an end to the travel ban.
"We wanted to get here before all the other Americans come and ruin it all," said Bridget, a 20-year-old from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who wandered Old Havana's colonial streets with her friend Erik in August. They wouldn't give their last names.
"It's forbidden treasure," said Erik, also from the Twin Cities. "It will be so Americanized in a few years. Just like Cancun," where U.S. franchises from Hard Rock Cafe to Hooters tend to drown out Mexican culture.
Some Americans sail to Cuba, but most fly through Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas or Jamaica. Cuban tourist cards can be purchased at third-country airports and customs officials usually stamp only these loose-leaf visas, not the permanent pages of U.S. passports.
Traveling to Cuba is not as easy as punching dates into an Internet site. Travelocity recently agreed to pay $182,750 in fines for booking nearly 1,500 flights between the United States and Cuba from 1998 to 2004. The company says it fixed technical glitches and no longer lets such trips go through.
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/21/07
BY WILL WEISSERT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Barack Obama would lift restrictions on visits by Cuban Americans to the hemisphere's only communist country if elected president.
A growing chorus of Democratic and Republican lawmakers would go even further, loosening the U.S. embargo enough to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba.
But thousands of U.S. tourists already travel to Cuba behind Washington's back, and many say being sneaky is part of the fun.Some are scrambling to get to the island while Fidel Castro is still alive, fearing the U.S. government could scrap the travel ban once he's gone and bring profound change to Cuba.
"The fact that you're not supposed to be there, that was the top for me," said Amit, 29, a New York City native who visited Cuba in September 2006, shortly after the 81-year-old Castro fell ill and ceded power to his younger brother.
"I was like, "It's time to go,' " said Amit, who asked that his full name not be published to avoid U.S. fines. "You just don't know what Cuba will be like after Castro's gone."
Traveling to Cuba is not illegal for Americans, but provisions of the Trading With the Enemy Act prohibit spending money here without authorization." If caught, unauthorized U.S. tourists can face civil fines of up to $55,000, though many settle for smaller amounts.
Since January 2006, 19 Americans have paid fines for sneaking to Cuba.
Obama would like to do away with tighter restrictions imposed by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2004 that limited educational and religious travel and reduced trips by Americans with family on the island to one every three years.
The U.S. Treasury Department issued 40,308 licenses for family travel last year, almost all to Cuban Americans, and the Cuban government counts these travelers as Cubans, not Americans.
Separately, Cuba said 20,100 Americans visited the country through June of this year, almost all presumably without U.S. permission.
Other than family members, the U.S. government granted permission 491 times for people involved in religious, educational and humanitarian projects. Some other Americans — including journalists and politicians — can come without licenses, though few do.
Cuba said about 37,000 Americans not of Cuban origin came in 2006 — down from the more than 84,500 it reported in 2003, before the latest restrictions.
The American Society of Travel Agents recently estimated that nearly 1.8 million Americans would visit in the first three years following an end to the travel ban.
"We wanted to get here before all the other Americans come and ruin it all," said Bridget, a 20-year-old from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who wandered Old Havana's colonial streets with her friend Erik in August. They wouldn't give their last names.
"It's forbidden treasure," said Erik, also from the Twin Cities. "It will be so Americanized in a few years. Just like Cancun," where U.S. franchises from Hard Rock Cafe to Hooters tend to drown out Mexican culture.
Some Americans sail to Cuba, but most fly through Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas or Jamaica. Cuban tourist cards can be purchased at third-country airports and customs officials usually stamp only these loose-leaf visas, not the permanent pages of U.S. passports.
Traveling to Cuba is not as easy as punching dates into an Internet site. Travelocity recently agreed to pay $182,750 in fines for booking nearly 1,500 flights between the United States and Cuba from 1998 to 2004. The company says it fixed technical glitches and no longer lets such trips go through.
Charles Rangel on Cuba
STATEMENT
CONGRESSMAN CHARLES B. RANGEL
CONTACT : Emile Milne 202 225-4365 October 25, 2007
CUBA: ANOTHER LOST OPPORTUNITY FOR PRESIDENT BUSH
The President today sided against the Cuban people and chose instead the tried and tired policies of the past. Not a fresh or novel idea was proposed, just a reiteration of longstanding − and long-failing − hardball tactics that have done nothing to promote democracy on the island. By rejecting a new direction, the President again delivered a course of raw meat to the most extreme opponents of the Castro government.
The Administration has shown a remarkable lack of foresight in its dealing with Cuba. Still mired in 1960's thinking, it waits for Fidel Castro's death to be the catalyst for democratic change, all while his brother, Raúl, consolidates power and influence. The President's attempt to play catch up − hurling age-old threats and intimidation − won't be more effective now than it has been for the last 50 years. Instead of idly preparing for Castro's death, we should be cultivating good will in Cuba, so that we can be active players when the head of state finally changes.
But the President appears committed to failure. The trade embargo has been a godsend to a Cuban government that uses it as a scapegoat for its errors. The failed strategy of the embargo has drawn ire from both religious leaders and political dissidents on the island, because it makes their fight for democracy that much harder. It has increased the influence of Hugo Chavez in appointing the U.S. as the enemy of Latin America. It has weakened our credibility in the War on Terrorism by defending terrorists such as Luis Posada Carriles, whose plots have killed innocent people.
Here at home, the policy stifles trade opportunities for American businesses seeking to sell in Cuba. It prevents Americans from travelling there, but allows free access to communist China and Vietnam. It encourages Americans to break the law and go to Cuba through a third country at exorbitant expense.
The cruelest aspect of the President's policy is ignoring the pain of separated Cuban families. No one suffers more than our Cuban-descendent brothers and sisters when travel is limited to one trip every three years, and emergency trips − even those relating to a dying relative − are outright barred. Even Cuban Americans who support the trade embargo are vehemently against a policy that divides their families.
The President announced an initiative allowing non-governmental organizations and faith groups to send computers to Cuba. But at the same time, needed clothes, medicines, and medical supplies donated by organizations like Pastors for Peace are considered contraband. He announced a program allowing for Cuban children to participate in a scholarship program in the U.S. But at the same time, he prevents American students and college researchers from studying there. He announced the creation of an international freedom fund, directed towards assisting Cuba's transition to democracy. But allowable remittances sent by Cuban Americans to their families on the island have been drastically reduced.
If the President really wants to promote democracy in Cuba, he will lift the embargo against travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba. I believe there would be no more effective way to evidence the difference between Castro's failed economy and the potential for a better life than returning Cuban-Americans who can testify to their own experience.
Unfortunately, today is just another day in a string of days since 1959 that playing electoral politics in Florida wins out over enacting sensible policy. It appears that changing course in the face of failure is something this Administration simply will not do.
CONGRESSMAN CHARLES B. RANGEL
CONTACT : Emile Milne 202 225-4365 October 25, 2007
CUBA: ANOTHER LOST OPPORTUNITY FOR PRESIDENT BUSH
The President today sided against the Cuban people and chose instead the tried and tired policies of the past. Not a fresh or novel idea was proposed, just a reiteration of longstanding − and long-failing − hardball tactics that have done nothing to promote democracy on the island. By rejecting a new direction, the President again delivered a course of raw meat to the most extreme opponents of the Castro government.
The Administration has shown a remarkable lack of foresight in its dealing with Cuba. Still mired in 1960's thinking, it waits for Fidel Castro's death to be the catalyst for democratic change, all while his brother, Raúl, consolidates power and influence. The President's attempt to play catch up − hurling age-old threats and intimidation − won't be more effective now than it has been for the last 50 years. Instead of idly preparing for Castro's death, we should be cultivating good will in Cuba, so that we can be active players when the head of state finally changes.
But the President appears committed to failure. The trade embargo has been a godsend to a Cuban government that uses it as a scapegoat for its errors. The failed strategy of the embargo has drawn ire from both religious leaders and political dissidents on the island, because it makes their fight for democracy that much harder. It has increased the influence of Hugo Chavez in appointing the U.S. as the enemy of Latin America. It has weakened our credibility in the War on Terrorism by defending terrorists such as Luis Posada Carriles, whose plots have killed innocent people.
Here at home, the policy stifles trade opportunities for American businesses seeking to sell in Cuba. It prevents Americans from travelling there, but allows free access to communist China and Vietnam. It encourages Americans to break the law and go to Cuba through a third country at exorbitant expense.
The cruelest aspect of the President's policy is ignoring the pain of separated Cuban families. No one suffers more than our Cuban-descendent brothers and sisters when travel is limited to one trip every three years, and emergency trips − even those relating to a dying relative − are outright barred. Even Cuban Americans who support the trade embargo are vehemently against a policy that divides their families.
The President announced an initiative allowing non-governmental organizations and faith groups to send computers to Cuba. But at the same time, needed clothes, medicines, and medical supplies donated by organizations like Pastors for Peace are considered contraband. He announced a program allowing for Cuban children to participate in a scholarship program in the U.S. But at the same time, he prevents American students and college researchers from studying there. He announced the creation of an international freedom fund, directed towards assisting Cuba's transition to democracy. But allowable remittances sent by Cuban Americans to their families on the island have been drastically reduced.
If the President really wants to promote democracy in Cuba, he will lift the embargo against travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba. I believe there would be no more effective way to evidence the difference between Castro's failed economy and the potential for a better life than returning Cuban-Americans who can testify to their own experience.
Unfortunately, today is just another day in a string of days since 1959 that playing electoral politics in Florida wins out over enacting sensible policy. It appears that changing course in the face of failure is something this Administration simply will not do.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Florida Travel Trial: Phony Religious Licenses
Two to be sentenced for Cuba travel ban violation
BY JAY WEAVER jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
10/11/07
Posing as men of the cloth, businessman Victor Vazquez and his wealthy friend David Margolis flew back and forth to Cuba by cleverly exploiting a religious loophole in the long-standing travel ban to the communist island nation.
But on the afternoon of Dec. 13, 2006, a team of U.S. Treasury and Customs agents finally caught up with them upon their return to Miami International Airport.
When asked about the Fort Lauderdale waterfront home that he used as a ''church'' to obtain his religious license, Margolis admitted, ``You have me dead to rights.''
Vazquez, at first defensive, admitted he assisted Margolis in preparing his application and that ''he knew the church did not exist,'' agents said.
Vazquez, 40, of Delray Beach, and Margolis, 76, of Fort Lauderdale, would soon become the nation's first defendants to be charged with illegally obtaining religious travel licenses to get around the 44-year-old travel ban to Cuba.
Vazquez, who had obtained five such licenses illegally, profited by selling his permits to thousands of Cuban Americans seeking to dodge restrictions that became even tighter under the Bush administration.
Last month, a court presentencing report said Vazquez sold the use of his licenses to 6,500 travelers -- estimating the government's ''loss'' and his ''gain'' at $975,000. His attorney, Celeste Higgins, called it a ''reckless estimate.'' She said the government suffered no loss and Vazquez pocketed between $120,000 and $400,000, citing his plea deal.
Vazquez and Margolis, who recently pleaded guilty, will be sentenced Friday and Monday, respectively, in Miami federal court. Vazquez could face up to three years in prison for conspiring to defraud the U.S. government. Margolis, convicted of a lesser charge of filing a false government application, faces up to six months but could get probation.
The year-long investigation -- which also led to the conviction of Vazquez's ex-wife and a Hialeah travel agent -- revealed a profitable scheme that allowed thousands of Cuban Americans to shuttle to and from the island. It has spawned other investigations by a U.S. attorney's task force targeting violators of the trade embargo against Cuba.
In the case of Vazquez and Margolis, it was all done in the name of God -- at least on paper.
***
The case against Vazquez began in January 2006 when investigators with the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control found an extraordinary number of people had traveled on his permits -- and many of them didn't live anywhere near his licensed ``churches.''
Such licenses represent one of the few exemptions that allow travel to Cuba under the U.S. trade embargo. They gained greater value in 2004 after President Bush imposed new rules allowing only one trip to Cuba every three years to visit an immediate family member.
Federal agents discovered that Vazquez obtained religious travel licenses from the Treasury agency ''under false pretenses,'' according to a criminal complaint filed in February by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Agents learned that Vazquez, who was living with his ex-wife Kekalani Vazquez in Winter Garden in Central Florida, had first applied for a religious license in March 2004. The application sought the license under The First Church of Christ, using the Vazquez's residence as its address.
The religious information was false.
Treasury officials estimated that more than 2,000 people traveled to Cuba on Vazquez's religious license through April 2006, when it expired. Vazquez took 45 trips to the island himself, the ICE complaint says.
That's when Margolis entered the picture.
On March 17, 2006, Vazquez turned to his friend to apply for a religious license for travel to Cuba on behalf of Assumption Church of Christ. Margolis signed the application, listed his $1.7 million waterfront home on Middle River Drive as the church's address and noted that it ''has 2,954 members and four directors,'' according to the complaint.
His lawyer, Richard Rosenbaum, said his client made five trips to Cuba with the license, but didn't do any religious work.
''They weren't going over there to research churches,'' Rosenbaum said.
Vazquez fabricated four other phony ministries with bogus addresses in Florida and elsewhere to apply for religious licenses for travel to Cuba. He also enlisted his ex-wife in the scheme. Kekalani Vazquez recently pleaded guilty and faces up to six months in prison.
More than 4,500 people paid up to $200 to travel on three of Vazquez's religious licenses between April 2006 and January 2007, the ICE complaint said.
Among the local travel agencies that handled the arrangements was Super Cuba Travel of Hialeah. One of its sales people, Yury Rodriquez, pleaded guilty this summer.
His attorney, Hugo Rodriguez, no relation, said 1,010 people used Super Cuba to travel under Vazquez's religious license. Vazquez charged between $120 and $200 for the use of his permit. All that money went to him, the lawyer said.
''There was no loss to any victim or the government,'' Rodriguez said, estimating that his client made $20,200 in fees for booking the Cuba flights with a carrier. He faces up to six months' imprisonment.
During their illegal trips, Vazquez and Margolis seemed more interested in romance than religion.
Vazquez, who is living under house arrest with his mother in Delray Beach, got married last year to a young Cuban woman who is trying to come to the United States, court records show.
''He became an additional member of our family. To such an extent that on the day he proposed marriage, neither I or my family hesitated in accepting,'' his bride, Dayana Betancourt Mojena, 21, wrote in a letter to the federal judge presiding over the case.
Margolis, a Fort Lauderdale real estate mogul with serious heart problems, made arrangements for his Cuban girlfriend to come to South Florida in September.
''He became enamored with a 27-year-old woman in Cuba,'' said Margolis' lawyer, Rosenbaum. ``She's living with him now.''
Rosenbaum said both men, who had met years ago when Vazquez was a tenant in one of Margolis' South Florida shopping centers, did humanitarian work while they were in Cuba.
Vazquez also looked for business opportunities in a post-Castro Cuba.
************
From my letter to the author:
The article did not mention a question that was raised in the early coverage of their arrest: what is being done about or to the people who consciously and dishonestly used this illegal route to Cuba.
Related to that is the question of whether the red line that was crossed by the defendants was profit making exploitation.
There is at least a suspicion that lots of other religious trips that are organized for Cuban Americans are a thinly veiled cover for family travel. So far OFAC and the US attorney seem to turn a blind eye. This stands in marked contrast to the denial of licenses to well established religious groups that overtly or implicitly criticize the archaic travel restrictions.
There is a rumor in Washington that the Bush Administration recently debated whether to tighten restrictions by enforcing them against the less than religious travelers, or to loosen them to allow more frequent family travel. A possible motive is the potential cost Miami Cuban American Republican hard liners and their party are paying in voter support.
My own interest is that at a time when Cuba is obviously going through a leadership change and serious nationwide discussion of economic policy, it is not only vindictive but stupid to maintain any travel restrictions, but most obviously those imposed by OFAC for partisan political reasons on family and purposeful (non-tourist) travel in 2003-2004.
BY JAY WEAVER jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
10/11/07
Posing as men of the cloth, businessman Victor Vazquez and his wealthy friend David Margolis flew back and forth to Cuba by cleverly exploiting a religious loophole in the long-standing travel ban to the communist island nation.
But on the afternoon of Dec. 13, 2006, a team of U.S. Treasury and Customs agents finally caught up with them upon their return to Miami International Airport.
When asked about the Fort Lauderdale waterfront home that he used as a ''church'' to obtain his religious license, Margolis admitted, ``You have me dead to rights.''
Vazquez, at first defensive, admitted he assisted Margolis in preparing his application and that ''he knew the church did not exist,'' agents said.
Vazquez, 40, of Delray Beach, and Margolis, 76, of Fort Lauderdale, would soon become the nation's first defendants to be charged with illegally obtaining religious travel licenses to get around the 44-year-old travel ban to Cuba.
Vazquez, who had obtained five such licenses illegally, profited by selling his permits to thousands of Cuban Americans seeking to dodge restrictions that became even tighter under the Bush administration.
Last month, a court presentencing report said Vazquez sold the use of his licenses to 6,500 travelers -- estimating the government's ''loss'' and his ''gain'' at $975,000. His attorney, Celeste Higgins, called it a ''reckless estimate.'' She said the government suffered no loss and Vazquez pocketed between $120,000 and $400,000, citing his plea deal.
Vazquez and Margolis, who recently pleaded guilty, will be sentenced Friday and Monday, respectively, in Miami federal court. Vazquez could face up to three years in prison for conspiring to defraud the U.S. government. Margolis, convicted of a lesser charge of filing a false government application, faces up to six months but could get probation.
The year-long investigation -- which also led to the conviction of Vazquez's ex-wife and a Hialeah travel agent -- revealed a profitable scheme that allowed thousands of Cuban Americans to shuttle to and from the island. It has spawned other investigations by a U.S. attorney's task force targeting violators of the trade embargo against Cuba.
In the case of Vazquez and Margolis, it was all done in the name of God -- at least on paper.
***
The case against Vazquez began in January 2006 when investigators with the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control found an extraordinary number of people had traveled on his permits -- and many of them didn't live anywhere near his licensed ``churches.''
Such licenses represent one of the few exemptions that allow travel to Cuba under the U.S. trade embargo. They gained greater value in 2004 after President Bush imposed new rules allowing only one trip to Cuba every three years to visit an immediate family member.
Federal agents discovered that Vazquez obtained religious travel licenses from the Treasury agency ''under false pretenses,'' according to a criminal complaint filed in February by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Agents learned that Vazquez, who was living with his ex-wife Kekalani Vazquez in Winter Garden in Central Florida, had first applied for a religious license in March 2004. The application sought the license under The First Church of Christ, using the Vazquez's residence as its address.
The religious information was false.
Treasury officials estimated that more than 2,000 people traveled to Cuba on Vazquez's religious license through April 2006, when it expired. Vazquez took 45 trips to the island himself, the ICE complaint says.
That's when Margolis entered the picture.
On March 17, 2006, Vazquez turned to his friend to apply for a religious license for travel to Cuba on behalf of Assumption Church of Christ. Margolis signed the application, listed his $1.7 million waterfront home on Middle River Drive as the church's address and noted that it ''has 2,954 members and four directors,'' according to the complaint.
His lawyer, Richard Rosenbaum, said his client made five trips to Cuba with the license, but didn't do any religious work.
''They weren't going over there to research churches,'' Rosenbaum said.
Vazquez fabricated four other phony ministries with bogus addresses in Florida and elsewhere to apply for religious licenses for travel to Cuba. He also enlisted his ex-wife in the scheme. Kekalani Vazquez recently pleaded guilty and faces up to six months in prison.
More than 4,500 people paid up to $200 to travel on three of Vazquez's religious licenses between April 2006 and January 2007, the ICE complaint said.
Among the local travel agencies that handled the arrangements was Super Cuba Travel of Hialeah. One of its sales people, Yury Rodriquez, pleaded guilty this summer.
His attorney, Hugo Rodriguez, no relation, said 1,010 people used Super Cuba to travel under Vazquez's religious license. Vazquez charged between $120 and $200 for the use of his permit. All that money went to him, the lawyer said.
''There was no loss to any victim or the government,'' Rodriguez said, estimating that his client made $20,200 in fees for booking the Cuba flights with a carrier. He faces up to six months' imprisonment.
During their illegal trips, Vazquez and Margolis seemed more interested in romance than religion.
Vazquez, who is living under house arrest with his mother in Delray Beach, got married last year to a young Cuban woman who is trying to come to the United States, court records show.
''He became an additional member of our family. To such an extent that on the day he proposed marriage, neither I or my family hesitated in accepting,'' his bride, Dayana Betancourt Mojena, 21, wrote in a letter to the federal judge presiding over the case.
Margolis, a Fort Lauderdale real estate mogul with serious heart problems, made arrangements for his Cuban girlfriend to come to South Florida in September.
''He became enamored with a 27-year-old woman in Cuba,'' said Margolis' lawyer, Rosenbaum. ``She's living with him now.''
Rosenbaum said both men, who had met years ago when Vazquez was a tenant in one of Margolis' South Florida shopping centers, did humanitarian work while they were in Cuba.
Vazquez also looked for business opportunities in a post-Castro Cuba.
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From my letter to the author:
The article did not mention a question that was raised in the early coverage of their arrest: what is being done about or to the people who consciously and dishonestly used this illegal route to Cuba.
Related to that is the question of whether the red line that was crossed by the defendants was profit making exploitation.
There is at least a suspicion that lots of other religious trips that are organized for Cuban Americans are a thinly veiled cover for family travel. So far OFAC and the US attorney seem to turn a blind eye. This stands in marked contrast to the denial of licenses to well established religious groups that overtly or implicitly criticize the archaic travel restrictions.
There is a rumor in Washington that the Bush Administration recently debated whether to tighten restrictions by enforcing them against the less than religious travelers, or to loosen them to allow more frequent family travel. A possible motive is the potential cost Miami Cuban American Republican hard liners and their party are paying in voter support.
My own interest is that at a time when Cuba is obviously going through a leadership change and serious nationwide discussion of economic policy, it is not only vindictive but stupid to maintain any travel restrictions, but most obviously those imposed by OFAC for partisan political reasons on family and purposeful (non-tourist) travel in 2003-2004.
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