CUBA
MEASURES
Following the demand to conduct an
exhaustive review of U.S. policy toward Cuba issued by prominent exiles and
exile organizations including the Cuban American National Foundation to
President George W. Bush’s Administration, the Administration has responded
with measures which include many of the recommendations put forth by the C.A.N.F.
The measures, not recommended by the
C.A.N.F. but that have received greater attention by the Administration and that
have provoked greatest discussion among the exile community, are those that
limit travel and remittances by Cuban-Americans to family members on the island.
These measures unfortunately, have created a greater divide among those
who arrived in the U.S. in the first two decades following the regime’s
takeover of power and those who arrived after 1980, whose connection to the
island and to their family members who continue to live there is more recent.
After almost five decades, what enables
our community to thrive and remain greatly dedicated to the cause of seeking
freedom and democracy for Cuba, are the bonds of family, intrinsic in Cuban
culture and nationality. Not
oppression, distance, time, nor the ocean that divides us has lessened the
desire of the Cuban exile to help and protect those who live under Castro’s
tyranny. These family ties are what
will enable the Cuban people to reconstruct what the Castro regime has
destroyed, and bring together all that he has separated.
It is because of this that we believe
our community should be extremely cautious when making recommendations to the
U.S. government to limit what many of us perceive to be our primary
responsibility, the welfare of our family members in Cuba.
Because we are not entirely convinced that this proposed reduction of the
flow of funds to the Castro regime justifies the limitation of not only the
right but the responsibility of the Cuban exile to help protect the well being
of our family members, we did not include these restrictions as part of our
proposed recommendations to the Bush Administration.
We believe that the spectrum of options and resources available to the Administration to advance the cause of democracy in Cuba is vast and that further limiting communication and direct family to family aid should not have been the priority, rather more proactive measures such as providing assistance to the internal opposition and increasing the effectiveness of Radio and TV Marti should have been the first to be implemented. We hope that these measures as well as others such as the indictment of Fidel and Raul Castro for the murder of the Brothers to the Rescue pilots are not forgotten in the electoral whirlwind and that the exile community is not, once again, disappointed by un-kept promises.
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