The Cuban Embargo: Keeping Families and Communities Apart

by Claire Rodriguez
Latin America Working Group

Those involved with efforts to make U.S. policy toward Cuba more reasonable and humane find themselves in a very different position today than a few years ago. In 2002 and 2003, decisive majorities in Congress supported language to end enforcement of the Cuba travel ban. Bipartisan Cuba Working Groups emerged in both chambers to coordinate efforts for positive change. Support for a policy change was so strong that in 2003 both the House and Senate voted to end the ban on travel to Cuba. These votes took place even though the Administration and Republican leadership in the House strongly opposed any measure that would ease the embargo.

Unfortunately, the Republican leadership put that opposition into play by removing the Cuba amendment from the final appropriations bill in which it was housed.

Today, advocates on Cuba policy face a difficult situation. At the close of 2003, President Bush created the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba to "hasten Cuba's transition to democracy" or to expedite Fidel Castro's departure. The following May, the Commission released its first report and shocked many with stringent recommendations for stepped-up enforcement of the embargo and the tightening of even some of its most egregious restrictions.

After the report's release, the Bush Administration implemented most of the Commission's recommendations. Some of the most inhumane restrictions were placed on Cuban-American family travel. Previously, Cuban Americans could travel to see their family once a year; but the new restrictions limit visits to once every three years and only with a special license. There are no exceptions for family emergencies.

In addition, congressional momentum for positive change has flagged. Both the House and Senate Cuba Working Groups have ceased to meet, and key congressional advocates for ending the travel ban have been operating more on their own, with less coordination among themselves or with any of the advocacy groups. In 2005, an amendment to end support for the ban on Cuban-American travel failed, 208-211. In the Senate, a technical parliamentary maneuver forced the removal of positive Cuba policy language.

When combined with the efforts to reduce travel to the United States by Cuban scholars, musicians and artists, religious leaders, etc., the effect of the Commission's recommendations has been to lower interest in and understanding of Cuba in the U.S., as well as reduce support for better U.S.-Cuba relations.

While the current atmosphere for policy change might seem discouraging, there is still room for change. Overall public opinion continues to see U.S. policy toward Cuba as a remnant of a misguided Cold War policy and to favor improved relations. Also, the evidence suggests that majorities in both the House and Senate continue to favor improved relations between the United States and Cuba, particularly an end to the ban on travel.

In light of the current political atmosphere, the Latin America Working Group (LAWG) will focus its work this year on breaking the embargo down, to attack the most egregious portions. The LAWG will work especially on two crucial issues to attack the embargo - Cuban-American travel and religious licensed travel. We will work to educate, organize, and mobilize the religious and Cuban-American communities around these issues.

Religious Groups Denied License Renewal with Partners in Cuba

While the Commission's report did not make any specific recommendations with regard to licensed religious travel to Cuba, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) - the branch of the Treasury Department responsible for enforcing the embargo and travel ban - felt emboldened by the new restrictions and changed their interpretation of the regulations on religious travel to Cuba. The new interpretations have resulted in unprecedented obstacles that impede major U.S. church denominations and religious organizations' relationships with partner churches in Cuba. National church bodies, like the American Baptist Churches, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, the Church of Christ/Disciples of Christ Global Ministries, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have all been denied license renewal.

OFAC denied the national church bodies their licenses, stating that the national level of the church does not qualify as a religious organization. OFAC suggested that the national church bodies apply for a license under a different regulatory provision. This provision would allow the churches to apply for a license to take 25 people per year to Cuba, with four trips allowable for only the same 25 pre-selected people. Under this provision, the United Methodists, Church World Service, and one PCUSA presbytery successfully applied for the license.

However, this license places undue restrictions and burdens on national church organizations. When applying for it, the churches are required to submit a list of the 25 people who will travel to Cuba. Furnishing this information is nearly impossible for churches who will have staff changes throughout the year, do not know what projects they will have funding for, and do not know who will request to travel abroad to meet with their partners of faith in Cuba.

The impact of these measures is to interfere with and impede the established relationships between national churches and their local congregations. The national offices and their mission boards and agencies coordinate matters of mission, education, and presence of the Church on a global scale for the local branches of the church. In many denominations the congregations are considered local manifestations of the national church. Therefore, by denying the national branch of the church the license to travel to Cuba, OFAC is denying the whole faith denomination the ability to travel.

Local congregations rely on the national church offices for services they cannot provide to their members. In the case of filing an application for a license to travel to Cuba, many of the local congregations have neither the technical know-how nor the resources to successfully apply. Of special concern is the reality that many small congregations, including many in minority communities, will be greatly disadvantaged by OFAC's new policy interpretations. These interpretations remove the ability of their denominational offices to assist them in mission activities beyond their neighborhoods. Many congregations do not have the resources by themselves to initiate contacts for mission and navigate the intricacies of obtaining travel licenses on their own. Nor, under the new interpretation, will they be able to participate in a mission to Cuba with fellow church members outside their local congregation.

LAWG's Work on Religious Licensing

Recognizing that these denials damage the ability of U.S. churches to exchange, encourage, and commune with their faith partners in Cuba, and that it is these religious ties which have slowly helped spread understanding and strengthened the ties between peoples from the United States and Cuba, the Latin America Working Group (LAWG), in conjunction with the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), will be working with Church World Service and various religious denominations and their leaders to change this policy.

We are currently working with allies in the House of Representatives to collect congressional signatures on a letter to the Department of Treasury and OFAC raising these issues with Treasury Secretary John Snow and OFAC Director Robert Werner, requesting clarification of the new interpretation. Specifically, we will ask "who" is a religious organization and therefore eligible for a religious travel license under current regulations.

We have also requested a meeting between high-level OFAC and State Department officials, Members of Congress, and religious leaders, to discuss license and visa denials. These meetings will take place in coordination with this year's Ecumenical Advocacy Days, in March. Advocacy Days will draw faith-based activists and church leaders throughout the country to Washington, D.C. to learn and to lobby Congress for a more just social policy.

Another step in our work will be to request meetings between the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, the office concerned with regulatory impingement on religious freedom, and religious leaders to discuss how these license denials are an impingement on religious freedom.

These meetings and work will be crucial in pointing out that whatever the relations of the U.S. government and the government of Cuba, the U.S. government should not be taking measures that re-define denominational structures within the United States, restrict religious freedom in our country, and harm the relationship between churches in the two countries.

Inhumane Restrictions Remain on Family Travel to Cuba

The Commission's report and the new restrictions implemented after the report's release have resulted in a severe curtailing of Cuban-American family travel. The new travel ban regulations allow Cuban Americans to travel to Cuba only once every three years to visit family. Additionally, the new restrictions have narrowly re-defined family to mean immediate family members only. Now, Cuban Americans must apply to OFAC for a special license and can only visit their grandparents, parents, and siblings. This means countless families are unable to travel to care for relatives, or visit the family members in Cuba to whom they are closest.

The plight of Cuban and Cuban-American families as a result of U.S. policy created a media frenzy in 2005 when Sergeant Carlos Lazo, a Cuban-American, and naturalized U.S. citizen, returned on leave from fighting in Iraq. Sgt. Lazo intended to use his leave time to visit his children in Cuba, only to be denied a license. After working with his Congressman, Sgt. Lazo's children were granted a visa to visit their father in the U.S.

This year the LAWG will work jointly with WOLA to further publicize the plight of Cuban Americans and work to reverse these new restrictions on family travel. Starting in May, there will be a series of coordinated events building upon one another to draw the maximum attention of the media, the U.S. public, and Congress. The LAWG will help coordinate a Cuban-American Education Day focusing on bringing the Cuban-American family message to Congress. Key congressional targets will be from Florida and New Jersey. The Education Day will be timed to coordinate with the anticipated introduction in both the House and Senate of free-standing legislation that would reverse the cruel restrictions on Cuban-American family travel to Cuba.

The Education Day and legislation will culminate on May 11th with the unveiling of an exciting and moving photo exhibit of Cuban Americans who have been adversely affected by the travel ban. The exhibit powerfully conveys how restrictive U.S. government travel policy towards Cuban Americans harms individuals and weakens their families. Please see the Take Action! (below) for more information on the exhibit and how you can become involved.

Take Action! Host a Cuban-American family separation exhibit in your hometown!

In LAWG's efforts to mobilize the Cuban-American community around family travel to Cuba, the LAWG and WOLA are sponsoring a photo exhibit of Cuban Americans who have been affected by the travel ban. Nestor Hernandez, Jr., a Cuban-American professional photographer living in the D.C. area, has photographed 20 Cuban-American families who have been unable to travel to Cuba under the new regulations governing family travel. Social scientists Drs. Jeanne Lemkau and David Strug, who are studying the effects of U.S. policy on Cuban-American families, have interviewed the photo subjects and condensed their stories into short personal testimonials.

The travel ban allows Cuban Americans to travel to Cuba just once every three years to visit only immediate family (no uncles/aunts, nieces/nephews, cousins). There are no exceptions for family emergencies. This means that many are unable to care for their relatives, or regularly visit the family members to whom they are closest. The purpose of the photo exhibit is to bring the reality of this separation of Cuban-American families to the attention of Congress and the U.S. public.

The photos will be unveiled on Capitol Hill on May 11th, just prior to Mother's Day, where Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), other Members of Congress, and Cuban-American family members will speak about the travel ban's cruel effects on their family. On May 19th, the exhibit will open at the Latin American Folk Institute (LAFI) in Washington, D.C. The photos will remain available for public viewing at LAFI for three weeks before going on tour throughout the United States. Check the LAWG website, at www.lawg.org for a preview and regular updates about the photo exhibit. Even if you cannot host, check back with us in the spring to see the exhibit at a venue close to you.