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A lifeline for
loved ones in Cuba
Posted on Thu, Feb. 19,
2004 in The
Miami Herald.
The Bush administration has announced a
review of U.S. policy toward Cuba with the
intention of making it tougher. Thats appropriate.
Our policy should be constant and reliable,
based on firm principles that protect the
core interests of the United States: promoting
democracy, fairness, economic freedom and
human rights. But tactical elements of that
policy should be periodically reviewed to
ensure relevance and efficacy. One of those
tactics is the issue of money sent to Cubans
in Cuba by relatives in the United States.
Ties that bind
Putting aside doubts that this initiative
might be an election-year ploy to gain Cuban-American
votes, the administration appears to be
reacting to South Florida Republican legislators
and some Cuban-exile community calls for
the president to take a harder line.
On a recent visit to Miami, Treasury Secretary
John Snow suggested that the administration
might toughen current rules that allow Americans
to send up to $300 per quarter to relatives
in Cuba. These rules also allow Cuban-American
travelers to take up to $3,000 to Cuba each
quarter to be divided among 10 households.
If the rules are regularly abused, as is
suspected, they are an appropriate target
for stricter enforcement. But before lowering
the limits or cutting the remittances altogether,
consider that family visits and cash support
are the human face of the Cuban-exile community.
It may be true that an unintended effect
of providing Miami cash to Cubans in Cuba
is to help prop up the government by making
life in Cuba more bearable. Thats ironic
and unfortunate. But the people-to-people
bond that these remittances strengthen are
a concrete way of maintaining ties between
all Cubans -- ties that will be tested in
the period after Castro. The stronger the
ties, the better will be the understanding
in the future.
We also believe that those dollars give
a measure of autonomy to ordinary Cubans
in Cuba who otherwise would be even more
dependent on the regime for food, clothing
and work. They pay for medicines that the
regime's vaunted healthcare system fails
to provide. And they fuel entrepreneurs
who could become the backbone of a future
free-market economy that can bring prosperity
to Cuba.
Enforce the rules
Naturally, the Cuban and Cuban-American
community in South Florida contains a variety
of viewpoints on the subject. So, its certain
that some will disagree, some arguing for
a true blockade, others for lifting all
restrictions.
But if the administration is seeking to
negatively impact the Cuban government,
and earn the goodwill of the exile community,
stricter enforcement of the laws and regulations
already on the books is the right way to
proceed.
Considering the benefits derived from remittances
to Cuba from South Florida, as they ponder
how to ''toughen'' the rules, U.S. officials
should keep in mind the time-honored cardinal
rule of physicians: First, do no harm.
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