Posted on Thu, Oct. 20, 2005
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH REPORT
Cuba, U.S. rules hurt families, group says
A new study by a human rights group blasts both Havana and Washington for travel policies that force families apart.
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@herald.com
Washington and Havana rip apart Cuban families with travel policies that violate civil rights, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a report that marks the first time the group investigates two countries in the same study.
Cuban-American families can't care for dying relatives because travel restrictions tightened last year by the Bush administration limit trips to the island to once every three years. And Cuba takes revenge on defectors by holding their kids ''hostage,'' the study said.
Families separated by distance and law shoulder the burden of decades of diplomatic tensions, Human Rights Watch said.
''What I see is a lot more people in pain,'' said Marisela Romero, whose case was one of those mentioned in the report.
Romero turned to the U.S. Treasury Department for an emergency waiver last year when she wanted to see her 87-year-old father, who had Alzheimer's and was getting progressively worse. But Romero, who left Cuba in 1992 and visited regularly, had already traveled to Cuba in May.
''According to them, I had to wait three years. I told them: My father does not have three years,'' Romero said. ``What kind of mind does it take to come up with a law that prohibits bringing someone Pampers?''
Romero's father died a year ago today. Afraid to break the law by going through a third country, she missed the funeral.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH REPORT
Cuba, U.S. rules hurt families, group says
A new study by a human rights group blasts both Havana and Washington for travel policies that force families apart.
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@herald.com
Washington and Havana rip apart Cuban families with travel policies that violate civil rights, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a report that marks the first time the group investigates two countries in the same study.
Cuban-American families can't care for dying relatives because travel restrictions tightened last year by the Bush administration limit trips to the island to once every three years. And Cuba takes revenge on defectors by holding their kids ''hostage,'' the study said.
Families separated by distance and law shoulder the burden of decades of diplomatic tensions, Human Rights Watch said.
''What I see is a lot more people in pain,'' said Marisela Romero, whose case was one of those mentioned in the report.
Romero turned to the U.S. Treasury Department for an emergency waiver last year when she wanted to see her 87-year-old father, who had Alzheimer's and was getting progressively worse. But Romero, who left Cuba in 1992 and visited regularly, had already traveled to Cuba in May.
''According to them, I had to wait three years. I told them: My father does not have three years,'' Romero said. ``What kind of mind does it take to come up with a law that prohibits bringing someone Pampers?''
Romero's father died a year ago today. Afraid to break the law by going through a third country, she missed the funeral.
`ILL-CONCEIVED POLICY'
''We don't understand why Cuban families have to pay the price for an ill-conceived policy,'' said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division.
Vivanco and senior researcher Daniel Wilkinson released the 69-page report, ''Families Torn Apart: The High Cost of U.S. and Cuban Travel Restrictions'' at a news conference Wednesday in Coral Gables.
Based on interviews with dozens of affected families in Cuba and the United States, the study says travel policies in both nations violate the internationally recognized right to freedom of movement.
Tougher U.S. travel restrictions were enacted in June 2004 as part of a Bush administration effort to deny the Castro government part of the cash that travelers take to Cuba every year.
A Treasury Department spokeswoman said restrictions are important to keep currency from an oppressive dictatorship.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, issued a statement slamming the report, saying: ``There is no moral equivalence in comparing our policies with that of the Castro regime's. Our goal is simple and honorable: freedom and democracy for the 11 million Cubans who live at the whim of a madman.''
Taking aim at Cuba, the report says its government regularly denies exit visas to medical professionals, to the children of defectors, and to relatives of Cubans living abroad legally.
''We don't understand why Cuban families have to pay the price for an ill-conceived policy,'' said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division.
Vivanco and senior researcher Daniel Wilkinson released the 69-page report, ''Families Torn Apart: The High Cost of U.S. and Cuban Travel Restrictions'' at a news conference Wednesday in Coral Gables.
Based on interviews with dozens of affected families in Cuba and the United States, the study says travel policies in both nations violate the internationally recognized right to freedom of movement.
Tougher U.S. travel restrictions were enacted in June 2004 as part of a Bush administration effort to deny the Castro government part of the cash that travelers take to Cuba every year.
A Treasury Department spokeswoman said restrictions are important to keep currency from an oppressive dictatorship.
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, issued a statement slamming the report, saying: ``There is no moral equivalence in comparing our policies with that of the Castro regime's. Our goal is simple and honorable: freedom and democracy for the 11 million Cubans who live at the whim of a madman.''
Taking aim at Cuba, the report says its government regularly denies exit visas to medical professionals, to the children of defectors, and to relatives of Cubans living abroad legally.
`HOSTAGES TO REGIME'
Cuba uses the exit visas as a tool for revenge against the disloyal and as blackmail to force the return of Cubans who have government permissions to live abroad temporarily, the report said.
''My children are hostages to the Castro regime,'' said José Cohen, a former Cuban state security agent who lives in Miami Beach. 'They want to give a lesson to people like me that grew up under the regime: `Do what José Cohen did, and you'll be separated from your family.' ''
After Cohen, 40, left Cuba in 1994, a court there sentenced him to death for being a traitor. His wife and three children were issued U.S. visas in 1996, but the Cuban government has not issued them exit permits.
Human Rights Watch made a series of admittedly ''long shot'' recommendations, including insisting the Cuban government allow its citizens to travel freely. The group urges the Bush administration to lift travel restrictions to Cuba, or at least offer emergency humanitarian exceptions.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/12947426.htm
Cuba uses the exit visas as a tool for revenge against the disloyal and as blackmail to force the return of Cubans who have government permissions to live abroad temporarily, the report said.
''My children are hostages to the Castro regime,'' said José Cohen, a former Cuban state security agent who lives in Miami Beach. 'They want to give a lesson to people like me that grew up under the regime: `Do what José Cohen did, and you'll be separated from your family.' ''
After Cohen, 40, left Cuba in 1994, a court there sentenced him to death for being a traitor. His wife and three children were issued U.S. visas in 1996, but the Cuban government has not issued them exit permits.
Human Rights Watch made a series of admittedly ''long shot'' recommendations, including insisting the Cuban government allow its citizens to travel freely. The group urges the Bush administration to lift travel restrictions to Cuba, or at least offer emergency humanitarian exceptions.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/cuba/12947426.htm
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