State Should Issue a Cuba Travel Warning

BY: CAPITOL HILL CUBANS



February 9, 2011

On January 14th, 2011, the Obama Administration announced the further easing of "purposeful" travel to Cuba.

The stated intent of this policy is to: "increase people-to-people contact; support civil society in Cuba; enhance the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people; and help promote their independence from Cuban authorities."

On February 4th, the Castro regime announced that it would seek a 20-year prison sentence against an American development worker, Alan Gross, for "Acts Against the Integrity and Independence of Cuba" -- a catch-all "law" against anything the regime perceives as a threat.

Indeed, this "law" is so arbitrary that anyone traveling to Cuba under the Administration's new measures would be ipso facto in breach of it.

After all, the expressed intent of the new policy, as noted above, is to weaken the control of the Cuban dictatorship over its people -- presumably a mortal threat to any dictatorial regime.

So according to the Administration's rationale, Americans traveling to Cuba on "purposeful" academic and religious travel will (hopefully) take with them copies of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, iPads loaded with uncensored literature and subscriptions to foreign press, smart phones for Cubans to connect with the free world and engage in conversations with dissidents (or discuss current events with regular Cubans on the street).

Faced with this presumed threat, the Castro regime will surely seek to blunt the intended effect of the new policy and make fresh examples of any would-be Alan Gross that gets in its way.

Bottom line: Without legal guarantees and respect for basic human rights, any American traveling to Cuba under the Administration's new policy can be whimsically arrested for an indefinite period.

Indeed, recent Iranian actions against three U.S. hikers show how the arrest of American travelers can become a favorite past time for cruel dictatorships.

Therefore, the State Department should issue a clear travel warning to Cuba. Or better yet, the Administration should revert its new policy until Cuban laws are transparent and, hopefully, more humane.

Otherwise, the Administration's new policy amounts to nothing more than a tourist measure, which would not only be in contravention of Congressional intent, but of U.S. law.