CUBAN COMMUNITY
Travel to Cuba debate divides exile community
A debate in Little Havana about the U.S. travel ban to Cuba elicited
passionate discussion, peppered with shouts, applause and booing, and
marked a trial run for what's to come in Congress.
BY LAURA MORALES
llmorales@MiamiHerald.com
The U.S. travel ban to Cuba incites passions at both ends of South
Florida's political spectrum. But having U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, who
hard-line exiles consider an adversary, sitting on a stage in the heart
of Little Havana Saturday marked a first.
Flake, a libertarian Republican from Arizona who has traveled to Cuba
four times and has pushed Congress for years to end the travel ban, took
part in a debate over the travel ban Saturday at the Tower Theater. He
sought to make a case that banning travel to the communist island is
counterproductive and against America's democratic ideals.
Florida International University professor and Cuba scholar Lisandro
Pérez echoed the argument, asking what had four decades of a trade
embargo accomplished.
Two prominent Cuban Americans -- radio host and University of Miami
professor Paul Crespo and Hialeah City Council President Esteban Bovo --
countered that opening Cuba to American tourists and allowing Cuban
Americans to visit family on the island more often than once every three
years would only strengthen Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl's control.
The mood in the jam-packed Tower Theater was reminiscent of the many
decades of demonstrations and discussions about U.S. relations with
Cuba: tense, heartfelt and often loud.
Tempers flared here and there, and moderator Michael Putney of
WPLG-Channel 10 and several panel members had to remind the crowd to
keep calm.
The debate, hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union, foreshadowed
what could be a battle in the Democrat-controlled Congress over proposed
legislation to ease restrictions.
Crespo said travel isn't the issue. ''It's about the embargo against
Castro. We want to keep that money out of Castro's hands,'' he said of
tourist dollars, adding that most people will travel there for leisure
and not academic or humanitarian reasons.
Bovo agreed, saying that the conditions that drove so many from Cuba are
still present. ''Castro has ignored pleas from the left and right to
open that society,'' he said.
Pérez argued that a policy which keeps families separated is ''morally
reprehensible,'' and that it just doesn't work.
Flake said that while any travel, from anywhere, would inevitably send
some funds Castro's way, it would also do good by making it harder for
him to isolate his society. ''I think Cuban-American families are
perfectly capable of making these decisions for themselves without the
intervention of Congress,'' he added.
During a question-and-answer period Miguel Saavedra, founder of the
anti-Castro group Vigilia Mambisa, asked Flake if, during any of his
four trips to Cuba, he brought up the issue of human rights.
''Every time,'' Flake replied.
``Either verbally or in writing, I've asked them to release prisoners.''
During the question-and-answer period two audience members became so
angry and disruptive they had to be escorted out by police.
Luis Zúñiga, a Radio and TV Martí executive and former political
prisoner, reminded Flake and Pérez that, even if the travel ban were
lifted, ''the regime has the power to decide who will travel to Cuba''
and that many, such as himself, still won't be able to go.
''If they put restrictions, that's their problem,'' Flake said, adding
that it should be beneath the United States to restrict Americans' freedoms.
Pérez agreed. ``Let's not put U.S. policy at the level of the Cuban
government.''
After the debate, Flake attended a luncheon and campaign fundraiser
where the board of directors of the Cuban Committee for Democracy
awarded him the Juan Gualberto Gómez Award.
Several recent polls have shown that Cuban Americans are split on
whether to end Bush's three-year limit for family travel, a limit that
has drawn fire from some in the religious community.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently issued a statement
urging Congress to end travel restrictions to the island.
Orlando bishop Thomas Wenski, chairman of the U.S. Bishops' committee on
international relations, commended lawmakers who seek to lift the
restrictions.
''No one should be prevented from visiting a dying relative or attending
a loved one's funeral simply for having traveled to Cuba once in the
previous three years,'' Wenski said in that statement, adding that the
policy does no honor to the country.
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