Talk of lifting Cuba restrictions renewed

U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
Talk of lifting Cuba restrictions renewed
Congress revived talk of removing travel and aid restrictions to Cuba
after the recent hurricanes, but action is unlikely.
Posted on Fri, Sep. 19, 2008
BY LESLEY CLARK
lclark@MiamiHerald.com

WASHINGTON --
The mother of a political prisoner held in Cuba and a single mom with an
aging parent on the island provided an impassioned backdrop Thursday as
Congress renewed a debate over lifting restrictions on travel and aid to
the island.

The hearing comes in the wake of damage caused by hurricanes Ike and
Gustav and calls from Cuban Americans and politicians to temporarily
lift caps on travel and how much money Cubans here can send to families.

''Americans who have family in Galveston can offer them housing, money,
clothes, supplies and emotional support,'' said Marlene Arzola, the
Miami Beach mom who said she can't visit Cuba until August 2010 because
of the travel restrictions. ``If I could, I would be in Guantánamo
helping my 78-year-old mother fix her roof. What in the world is wrong
with that?''

She was countered by Blanca Gonzalez, whose son, Normando Hernandez, was
imprisoned in Cuba in 2003 -- a crackdown, Gonzalez says, spurred
tighter travel restrictions. She said 59 of those seized -- and her son
-- are still being held and argued against lifting the sanctions.

''Why aren't you putting pressure on the international community and
others to pressure the Castro regime to accept the tremendous amount of
humanitarian assistance the United States has offered?'' she said in
Spanish through an interpreter. ``What would justify we lift sanctions
against a despotic regime that refuses to give a single sign of a
willingness to change?''

A longtime critic of U.S.-Cuba policy is proposing legislation that
would lift the travel ban for six months, but he acknowledged it might
not get a hearing until after the November election. Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama and Democratic congressional
candidates Joe Garcia, Raul Martinez and Annette Taddeo have been among
those calling for a temporary halt to the restrictions.

`ANTI-AMERICAN'

Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., said he'd like to lift the restrictions
imposed by President Bush in 2004 entirely, calling them ``anti-family
and anti-American.''

''But I am willing to compromise to avoid a humanitarian disaster,''
Delahunt said. His bill will call for lifting restrictions on family
travel, remittances and care packages for six months.

Congress, though, is only expected to be in session for another week
before recessing for the November election. And the proposal sparked
opposition even in the House subcommittee Delahunt chairs. The
committee's top Republican, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California,
cautioned against lifting any of the sanctions.

''We don't make it a better world by treating [the Cuban government] as
if it were like a government in Belgium or Brazil,'' he said. ``Changing
our rules to try to treat them the same way is not going to bring about
more freedom for the Cuban people.''

Rohrabacher noted that the Cuban Americans in Congress -- including
Republican Reps. Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
-- oppose lifting the travel ban. They are facing Democratic
challengers: Mario Diaz-Balart by Garcia, Lincoln Diaz-Balart by
Martinez, and Ros-Lehtinen by Taddeo.

Rohrabacher said those members know the issue best. ''They understand,
as do the people who vote for them, that yes, sometimes it is important
to sacrifice that moment of love and compassion because in the long run
it will bring repression and brutality and misery toward large numbers
of people,'' he said.

Ninoska Pérez Castellón of the Cuban Liberty Council offered a sharp
retort to Delahunt, whom she noted went to Cuba in 2006 and declared
Raúl Castro's presidency a ``new era.''

''You know what's un-American,'' the radio and TV host said, peering at
Delahunt from the witness table, ``to serve as an apologist for dictators.''

`USUAL SUSPECTS'

She said in an interview before testifying that the critics of the
policy were ''the usual suspects'' -- people interested in lifting
sanctions, regardless of hurricane damage. But Francisco ''Pepe''
Hernandez, the president of the Cuban American National Foundation,
which obtained a new federal license to aid storm victims and said it
was swamped by the response, called the restrictions ``inhumane and
absurd.''

''Cuban Americans now more than ever must become agents of change inside
the island,'' he said. ``We have to find ways we can break that total
control of the Cuban government over the Cuban people. This is our
opportunity. And it's the opportunity of the Cuban people.''

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