U.S. CUBA POLICY
Religious groups feel cut off from Cuba
Religious groups in the United States and Cuba have complained that
strict U.S. policies make it difficult to build bridges of faith across
the Florida Straits.
BY OSCAR CORRAL
ocorral@MiamiHerald.com
A wing under construction at St. Brendan Catholic School in Miami
harbors a pile of goodwill -- some of it withering in the dank humidity
-- that was meant to be delivered to Cuba's needy.
Donated diapers, baby formula, wheelchairs, even Christmas decorations
are stacked from floor to ceiling.
But for almost two years, the Archdiocese of Miami has had little
face-to-face contact with Catholics in Cuba, a byproduct of tightened
travel restrictions for religious organizations imposed by the U.S.
Treasury Department.
Rev. Fernando Heria, St. Brendan's pastor and an archdiocese spokesman,
said the Cuba-bound goods sometimes expire or rot, so the archdiocese
tries to give perishable goods to Miami's needy before they go bad.
The church would send the aid with Catholics who traveled to the
communist island or ship it with their humanitarian license, which
expired in 2005, Heria said.
''Whenever we limit the flow of communication between people, it serves
to alienate us, as opposed to unite us,'' Heria said.
The archdiocese sent about 50 clergy and laypeople a year to Cuba under
its religious license but now sends fewer than five. The Catholic
umbrella organization had a religious travel license for a decade, but
the Treasury Department has yet to answer the diocese's request to renew
the license, Heria said.
U.S. Jewish groups would drop in on Cuba's biggest synagogue, Beth
Shalom, up to three times a month, bringing care packages stuffed with
matzoh crackers, school supplies, and nonprescription drugs for Cuba's
Jewish community of about 1,500.
The visits have tapered off to six or seven a year, and donations have
dried up, said William Miller, head of Beth Shalom in Havana.
''We've had months without a single group from the United States
visiting,'' Miller said in a telephone interview from Havana. ``Being
part of the Jewish community means helping your fellow man, and we feel
punished for being part of Cuban society.''
LOOPHOLES CLOSED
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which
oversees licenses for religious travel, tightened the regulations after
some groups took advantage of loopholes.
''OFAC became aware that a number of large organizations were abusing
their religious travel licenses by soliciting participation beyond their
own organizations for trips to Cuba, yielding less control of the travel
groups and their activities in Cuba,'' said OFAC spokeswoman Molly
Millerwise in an e-mail. The policy was changed in fall 2004, ''in hopes
of eliminating such abuses,'' she said.
Before the restrictions, OFAC issued broad licenses that did not limit
the number of travelers. Now, umbrella organizations that represent
several churches or religions are limited to taking 25 people per trip
every three months and must provide OFAC a list of travelers a year in
advance.
However, individual congregational churches or synagogues are not
limited in the number of trips or travelers, Millerwise said.
''The individual congregations more often know the individuals and are
directly involved in planning . . . religious activities in Cuba,'' she
said.
Baptist, Presbyterian, Jewish and other religious leaders say the
restrictions for umbrella groups are an affront to religious liberty.
''I believe the reinterpretation of the existing religious laws directly
restricts my right as an American to practice my religion,'' said Joe
Irwin, spokesman for the United Church of Christ's Southeast
Pennsylvania Region. ``I think it's offensive, and actually quite scary
to Americans that suddenly their right to practice their religion is
controlled by the government.''
OTHER AGENDAS
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a proponent of current U.S. policy toward
Cuba, said some groups that were traveling to Cuba with religious
licenses had other agendas.
''Authentic religious travel is permissible under the current Cuba
travel guidelines, and some of the groups advocating the loosening of
these rules are actually against the embargo as a whole,'' Ros-Lehtinen
said in an e-mail through her spokesman. ``They allege that they are
prevented from going to the island, but some of the trips may be more
oriented toward tourism under the guise of a religious mantle.''
The Miami Herald reported in February 2005 that several Santeria groups
were abusing their licenses to take tourists to Cuba. After the report,
OFAC sent letters to dozens of organizations, warning them not to abuse
travel privileges, and announced investigations into alleged wrongdoing.
Members of several groups said they believe OFAC cracked down because
they had been vocal against U.S. policy toward Cuba.
`POLITICAL BENT'
''The State Department, which oversees the Cuba policy and directs
Treasury and OFAC, favors particular congregations and particular
denominations who, in our opinion, have more of the political bent that
is acceptable to the State Department,'' said Mavis Anderson, a senior
associate at the anti-embargo, nonprofit Latin America Working group.
``Some denominations have taken strong positions against the embargo
[and] are therefore not favored in traveling to Cuba.''
OFAC would not provide the list of groups that have licenses or those
that have been suspended. Officials said the regulations are applied
even-handedly to all groups.
Rev. Patricia Lloyd-Sidle, Caribbean liaison for the Presbyterian Church
(USA), said the new restrictions make it difficult to plan trips because
providing travelers' names a year in advance is unrealistic, and
changing the list can bring months-long delays.
''It's extremely frustrating because it's hard to sort through what the
spirit and letter of the law is trying to achieve,'' she said.
The restrictions have crippled religious organizations' ability to carry
out disaster relief in Cuba, said Antonios Kireopoulos, an associate at
the National Council of Churches, which advocates against the embargo.
Stan Hastey, executive director of the Alliance of Baptists, said his
group used to coordinate travel for 200 to 300 people a year to Cuba
from 20 Baptist churches in the Southeast. He says now, fewer than 100
people a year go from about 10 churches.
Hastey said his religious license was suspended in 2005 because OFAC
said some of the churches he represented were not following travel
guidelines. Three of five churches OFAC singled out have since obtained
new religious licenses, he said.
''What the Treasury Department has done over the past two years is
systematically curtail travel by the three principal groups of U.S.
citizens traveling to Cuba: Cuban Americans, religious institutions and
academic institutions,'' he said. ``Frankly, it has worked. In each of
these three major categories, the number of citizens traveling there has
been drastically curtailed.''
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