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| Congress will put a stop to the travel ban for Americans going to Cuba.
Posted: 3/1/2007 3:02:32 PM | Cuba getting more gay friendly.
Published on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 by USA Today
When It Comes to Gay Rights, is Cuba Inching Ahead of USA?
by DeWayne Wickham
Years before George W. Bush proclaimed his support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages in the United States, the ideologically rigid government of Fidel Castro made a big move in the opposite direction.
It sanctioned the production and viewing of Strawberry and Chocolate, an Academy Award-nominated film about the awkward friendship between a straight man and a gay man — and the homophobia they both had to battle.
Since this movie debuted in theaters here in the mid-1990s, the Cuban government's intolerance of homosexuals has given way to a more egalitarian treatment of gays and lesbians.
The public persecution of homosexuals has declined sharply. Two years ago, Cuba had its first gay film festival. Last year, the highest-rated show on Cuba's state-run television was a soap opera in which a married man fell in love with another man. And now this country is on the verge of enacting a law that gives same-sex couples some form of legal status.
Ending bias
"We have to abolish any form of discrimination against those persons," said Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly. "We are trying to see how to do that, whether it should be to grant them the right to marry or to have same-sex unions."
Alarcon said he expects Cuba's communist government will soon enact a law to do one or the other. "We have to redefine the concept of marriage," he said. "Socialism should be a society that does not exclude anybody."
This awakening comes less than a year after President Bush renewed his call for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. "Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them, and changing the definition of marriage would undermine the family structure," Bush said in June.
Just one state, Massachusetts, allows gay marriages. And only four permit some form of same-sex union, which falls short of the definition of marriage but lets gay couples have some legal rights.
How ironic is this? While a country that successive U.S. governments have called a totalitarian state is moving toward expanding the rights of gays and lesbians, the president of the United States — the world's leading democracy — wants to restrict their rights.
Influential advocate
To be sure, Cuba is not the Netherlands. It’s no gay mecca, but the attitudes of people inside and out of this country’s government are undergoing a dramatic change when it comes to gays and lesbians. This may be because one of the leading advocates of gay rights in Cuba is Mariela Castro – the niece of Fidel Castro and daughter his brother, acting President Raul Castro. She heads Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education.
It also might have to do with Cuba's ever-evolving strategy for fending off U.S. attempts to topple its Communist government and replace it with a U.S.-style democracy. A same-sex union or gay marriage law could make Cuba appear to be more tolerant than the USA.
"Because of our historical heritage, Cuban society has been intolerant of homosexuals," said Ruben Remigio Ferro, president of Cuba's Supreme Court. "But there has been a change in thinking. We are developing a program to educate people about sexual orientation. But it is not a problem that has been solved."
It is, however, a problem that Cuba's government seems determined to solve. "I'm part of this country, like it or not. And I have the right to work for its future," Diego, the gay character in Strawberry and Chocolate, told his straight friend.
Cuba's half-century tug of war with the United States is an ideological struggle. It is a contest between this country's socialist ideals and America's efforts to impose its will on this island nation. While this battle plays out largely on the world stage, its outcome will be determined by the trench warfare that Cuba wages for the hearts and minds of its people — those who are straight or gay. | |
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| Congress will put a stop to the travel ban for Americans going to Cuba.
Posted: 3/1/2007 10:34:46 PM | @ebit. Please, don't take this like I'm slaming at you. I just pretend to give you an inside.
When Cuba adopted soviet-style comunism it also adopted soviet-style prejudice and puritanism. Since Stalin promoted the ideology of 'the socialist family' and recriminalized in 1934, communist orthodoxy dictated that homosexuality was a 'burgeous decadence' and a 'capitalist degeneration'.
In the name of the new socialist morality, homosexuality war was declared illegal in Cuba and typically punishable by four yrs imprisonment. Parents were requiered to prevent their children from enganging in homosexuals activities and to report those who did to the authorities. Failure to informe on a gay child was a crime against the Cuban Revolution.
Official homophobia led, in the mid-60s to mass round-up of gay people, without charge and trials. Seized in night-time swoops and incarcerated in forced labour camps (UMAP) for 're-education' and 'rehabilitation'. That anti-gay witch-hunt, McArthy's style, was never considered a political repression since an homosexual is a 'sexual deviant'.
After the First National Congress on Education and Culture, 1971, the social repression of homosexuality intensified. It decreed that gay/lesbian were 'pathological', 'antisocial', and 'agents of imperialism'. Therefore, the widespread anti-gay purges followed in schools, universities, workplaces, theaters and the media. Gay professors, dancers, writers, actors, editors... ended up working as laborer, sweeping the streets and digging graves by hand as only available jobs for them.
The 'no tolerance' homophobic excesses weren't different from the oppresion of gays Chileans during Pinochet dictatorship. However, its fair to point out, none can claim in Cuba of the death quads that murder queers in Colombia.
By mid-70s repression/persecution/prosecution began to easy by international protest, mostly organized by the gay and women lib movement in Canada, US and Europe.
While the 1979 penal code officially and formally decrimilized homosexuality kept a provision on the law that gay behaviour causing 'public scandal' can be punished up to one year in jail. This vague article, too wide open for interpretation, has often been used to arrest gay men/women merely because they happen to be effeminate, flamboyant or show public display of afecction- including holding hands.
On 1980, homosexuals were forced to take the path of Mariel's exodus, literally deported, not different than the 'clean up' from criminal population, immates or previously convicted. By mid-80s the mentality changed due to influences from East German doctors and psychologist leading to a more 'liberal' approach and viewed as a 'natural minority condition'.
With the advent of AIDS and the gay population to be blamed for, there were a new wave of retaliation. At the same time, everyone with HIV were 'guaranting' and isolated for years in specialized sanatoria/jail type in order to control the spread of the virus 'in the best interest of the society'.
A significant softening of official attitude took place in the early 90s abandoning the detention policy, mostly influenced by Canadian relationship. It was until 1992, that Castro finally declared that homosexuality was 'a natural human tendency that must simply be respected'. However, he never apologized or expressed remorse for the past.
It was in that context that the movie "Strawberry and Chocolate" (1994) was filmed. Remember that all tele-communication in Cuba is a state-run media. Nothing is done without government permission. In an misinterpretation of a new line of thinking with that movie- same year 1994, the Cuban Association of Gays and Lesbians was formed. It was suppressed on 1997 and its members arrested.
Amnesty International regards the lack of a clear, categorical civil rights legislation for homosexuals, as being tantamount to 'by the facto illegal'.
Most gay bars are semi-legal private house parties subject to periodic police raid.
On 1997, Havana's biggest bar- El Periquiton, was closed down with a twisted official policy. Instead of jail time, fines are now imposed: up to the equivalent to seven month's wages and confiscation of lights, sound systems and record collections 'as coming from the black market'.
With the promotion of the turism industry as a new source of income the situation regarding homosexuality had had up and downs, depending of differents point of views. There were two new social phenomenons to deal with: drugs and prostitution.
With the promotion, lately, of the sex turism the actual trend is to control/persecute/prosecute/punish within the native population with a distinct flexibility in the touristic paradise.
Melange Magazine has a compilation of reports (1997-2002) about gay life in Cuba.- http://melange.enigmatic.org/archive/2004-2006/gaycuba.php is a source for updates.
Regarding Melaine Castro, I have ambivalent feelings. To me, she is not the head of Cuba's National Center for Sexual Education (being Castro's niece) because a new positive projection toward homosexuality but, because (irony of life) she happens to be the lesbian daughter of the now in command Raul Castro. A man who all his life had addressed all his opponents as 'maricones'. It can be indeed, a good change in the policy, since he has no other choice having a house with a glass roof.
Btw, there is an article in The Gazzette, Montreal (from today) about her participation at the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights.
I won't deny a more stubborness and conservative attitude from Bush regarding same sex relationship if you think about Canada, but regarding Cuba...still today, 2007, homosexuality are deemed unfit to join the only and reigning Communist Party because being gay/lesbian is supposedly contrary to communist ethic. This is a huge adverse impact on a person's professional career in a society where all appointments and most of all managment positions may depend on party membership.
Sorry, for the lengthy verborrea. | |
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Posted: 3/1/2007 11:18:10 PM | I don't understand how you can blame Castro for the common people not liking gays in Cuba. In most caribbean/Latin countries Brazil being one of the FEW exceptions gays have always been treated poorly. It is part of the culture. I have known plenty of Jamaican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban fathers who have really contemplated killing their sons when they find out they are gay. There are even plenty of cases where they did kill them. It ws this way FAR before Castro was even born.
I can say that things are changing on the Island,the younger generation just like in the US are less likely to hate based on race, sex, or sexual orientation than the past generations but, these kind of hatreds and ignorance are slow to die off completely.
The thing that always gets me about Cubans who will not go back home or for some reason cannot go back home. They always try to speak like an authority on how the people are living back where they will not or cannot go. Also when those of us who do go back or can go back tell people that the Cuban system is not all negative and people do actually live happy healthy lives. They want to say that this is impossible no one is happy that is native Cuban etc... The majority in Cuba are not for nor against the government. Most of them just like in the USA are not very political nor wish to be. They are busy living their lives and when there is an unjust law just like when there is one in the USA people find ways around it. Sometimes people get caught up in the system and spend some time. Show me a country where this don't happen. You act like they are storm trooping through every ones house every day and rounding people up labeling them as traitors etc.
If you think you are so much more allowed to go against the government in the USA you got a rude awakening ahead of you. I dare you to go find out. FBI or secret service will be on your ass in a heart beat. Even peace protesters are being harassed by the US government these days. They have been breaking into peoples houses without warrants and imprisoning people of the press for not giving up their sources on suspected anti government dissidents right here in the USA.
No one is saying the Cuban system is perfect there is no such thing anywhere in the world. Yet, their system is not all negative either. The reason many people get on boats from Cuba to the USA is because people feed the natives stories about the streets being paved of gold in the USA. When they get here they often find out the hard truths about the matter. If you dont have money when you get here you have to work just like back home and to make matters worse education and health care are usually above the means of a worker. So guess what while your check is bigger so are the bills. Everyone always thinks the grass is greener on the other side....
Same thing goes here in the USA not everything is possitive nor is it all negative there are good things and bad things about living in the USA.
The embargo does not and has never hurt Castro. He lives just fine. (probably not these days saying he is ill.) It is the common people your family our people who suffer from this. Both the Cubans back home who are trying to make ends meet and those of us over here trying to go see loved ones. The leaders of nations do not suffer from such things as embargo or travel bans. Only the common people effected by such bans and embargo feel it.
The fanaticism of Anti-Castro Cubans in the USA is at times sickening. The "I will let my family continue to suffer just so I can make myself think it is in some way hurting Castro" is crazy at best. I do understand the pain and loss many of these families have gone through. I do not understand how one goes from there to lets cause more pain on our families and this will somehow hurt Castro.
Castro will pass soon, maybe after the people in Miami have their celebration some of this hate that is blocking up the healing process will pass with Castro. To blame one man for all of Cuba's problems is like blaming Bush for all of the US problems. It is naive misunderstanding of cause and effect. While each of these men like all men have done their share of ill deeds, it is not they alone who have created the root problems that existed before they were even born. They had their own ideas for how to make changes some good some very bad. The question here is should we continue to do the wrong thing and punish common people who merely wish to travel to Cuba and those who will be visited by those travelers? This ban/embargo is not hurting Castro nor is hurting Bush it is hurting us the common people and this is completely opposite of the right thing to do. | |
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Posted: 3/2/2007 2:31:23 AM | I'm very well aware of the different distinctions between racism, racial profiling perceptions, ethnicism, nationalism, nativism, fallacy of the composition, hasty generalization, distorted stereotypes and cultural/social prejudices to know when something can be call discrimination, either by a person or the state.
The latino-macho culture is anti-gay by nature, bordelined with homophobia but, is a culture feed by traditions, not a hereditary gene for an ethnicity. In that learning process of assimilation of civic and moral values the social interaction (as individual) is the end result between accept a gay/lesbian as a person or reject an homosexual as sub-human class.
To take a 'natural' rejection under family influence by the 'moral values' from the parents during childhood is different from to kept and accept those values as valid on adulthood. In this basic idea of natural psychological evolution the individual entity changes or remains the same by choice and is an incidental and related consequence for the sociological evolution.
Of course time is not the same. The Cuban woman is not different than the Canadian, American or European about the idea of being housewife or being part of the workforce, the divorce is not a social stigma anymore and whatever was classified as a taboo 50 yrs ago is today, a reason to laugh. In the same line of thinking the capitalism under Batista isn't the same as the one we are living today, nor the first half of the communist Cuba is as the one is today. Its called evolution and is part of dialectic behavior of person, society and their integration to contemporary global interchange.
I took my time in my post to back up my arguments in a context of time, mentioning different years. True the 60s, 70s, 80s are things of the past. Today, are not the extremes anymore and is ok 'as long is not crossed the line'.
Anyway, I'll leave up to you the considerations for your own opinions.
As a person, I can see a gay/lesbian person as my best friend or I can reject to even speak him/her; I can show my respect/love or I can show my hate and discrimination. That will be my personal behaviour toward homosexuality accepting or rejecting the latino-macho man way of thinking.
As a head leader, state policy, institutionalized by law, as sistematic official practice for years...how do you call it? How is possible to blame a culture for the wrongdoings of the State?
Travelling to Cuba, by American and Cuban-American is possible, aside the embargo. The Cuban government found and took care of that with a pretty intelligent way to go around the law. In the same token, the limitation to sent money to relatives in Cuba is just a writing paper. There are plenty of venues and all of them are in use. People who get into trouble is because make too much noise to be unheard.
Life in Cuba today is to live without hope, the only thing that never should be lost.
Everyone, basically, has two choices and two only: openly defy the system or go with the flow.
What may seem an agreement with the system because lack of rebelion is just the learned experience to accept things that can not be changed, look for adapt and know the difference.
At the end of the day you have to decide if take your own life or live for tomorrow.
By the way you think, it seems to me you have an unreal and wrong image of the dreamland.
Everyone knows that the embargo law didn't acomplished its intented goal. It doesn' affect Castro's well being, nor the elite who play government.
The embargo policy, as today, isn't a law to be enforced as a tool to overthrow Castro from power anymore. Is a symbol if you may understand, rather than a blind and a stupid legislation.
You may see it as a clear violation of your civil rights because the simple fact that you take those rights as granted. At the very least, never experienced the lack of it. To give you a lecture about justice it will make me look pasional and rethoric. At the very least, like you imply in your post like an "authority" to tell you how to think.
Who knows? Maybe you are right, it can be a conditional reflex listening from the cradle to the grave what I have to do... or go to jail. | |
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Posted: 3/2/2007 5:05:32 AM | | no. i think it just goes back to america ALWAYS being wrong. we will **** about not letting illegals in and how we treat them, but say nothing about it being a FELONY to go into mexico illegally. we do not need to offer cuba any aide through tourism dollars | |
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Posted: 3/2/2007 6:11:53 AM | | by that logic i should be free to have sex with a 12 year old. i should be free to yell fire in a theater. i should be free to steal from stores. no country has total freedom. like anything in the usa, if we dont like it, we can change it. you dont like the laws, then go vote for people that will allow it. | |
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Posted: 3/2/2007 6:18:21 AM | Huh, you equate tourism with pedophilia? Odd, you see to be struggling here so I'm going to point this out in as simple of a manner as possible.
Pedophilia, Panic in theaters, Theft....
They all have victims, and contravine other peoples rights to safety, property... so on so on.
Traveling to cuba doesn't have any of that.
Oh yah just so you know you pulled a "straw man" argument there the issue is pedophilia or theft, it's a trip to cuba.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
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Posted: 3/2/2007 5:57:27 PM | OP. I've been reading your posts again and lead me to a simple question based on what I do know about to go around the embargo law.
I assume your support for the lift of the ban to travel to Cuba is more an humanitarian reason that the intention to make a political statement about the violation of your civil rights.
I assume, also, this is an info you don't know.
-Regarding financial aid to family and relatives.
As today, it's considered the average Cuban income in 250 cuban pesos as a national currency to pay salaries. Other countries' currency has no legal acceptance in daily exchange operations. Its mandatory the convertion through the Cuban National Bank in what is called the convertible peso. Another type of money equivalent to international rates values. For the sake of the argument, let's forget about the irrational discrepancies for the manipulation of the value of this convertion. Let's accept as valid (by enforcement) that a 1 cup=1.20 usd; 1.00 cad and 0.80 euros. In the black market 25 cup=1 usd. Therefore, national average income is consider as 10 dollar per month.
Legally, in US territory, is allowed through the Western Union remitance for 300 usd every three months. Legally, through Antillas Express, Canada there is no limited.
Personally, by US agency, Canadian agency and, in order to avoid fees, with different Cuban people who travel to the island I send an average of a minimum 50 usd per week.
-Regarding travelling for family contact.
Of course, it mainly depends of financial capabilities. It is allowed, to Cuban-Americans a travel once every three years in a direct flight from US territory. In real life, as many times as anyone can afford through a third country, mainly Mexico and Canada.
- Regarding travelling for tourism.
American citizens can and do travel if they want to, through a third country provided a previous Cuban visa is aproved. Once in Cuban territory, an internal arrival travelling pass is issue. In the American passport is never stamped a legal record of the entry-departure from Cuban territory.
- Regarding travelling for others reasons.
With a streamline process, The Deparment of the State, aproves travelling permit for humanitarian reasons due family emergency with provided proof: hospital certification of imminent deaths or copy of deaths certificates. Of course, Cuban permit to enter in the country. For religious or others reasons, once again, is allowed one visit every three years.
Cuban-Americans who are not allowed entry in Cuba, by no permission of Cuban government has nothing to do with the embargo law.
Q: If your intention is to travel, if you have a passport (American and/or Cuban) and you have a Cuban visa... where is the problem? | |
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Posted: 3/3/2007 9:57:11 PM |
THE Treasury Department’s Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) does not currently possess the staffing levels required to process applications for licenses for the thousands of Cuban-Americans who wish to carry out their “right” to travel to Cuba once every three years, but it does in fact have dozens of officials to harass people who dare to travel to the island from U.S. territory without that nation’s blessing.
Given that combating Al-Qaeda terrorists leaves him enough time to deal with those Cuban-Americans who are “guilty” of loving their families, Juan Zárate, Treasury deputy assistant secretary in the battle against financing terrorists, personally visited El Nuevo Herald during the last few days and revealed OFAC’s bizarre incapacity to deal with the public’s requests.
The OFAC “does not have the personnel at the moment to process license applications” revealed Zárate, confirming that the organization responsible for approving or rejecting each one of the travel requests, is accumulating the applications that were handed out, not without delay, after the application of the new anti-family dictates from Bush and his mafioso advisors.
It has not as yet authorized one single license to visit relatives in Cuba, the high-ranking Treasury Department official shamelessly confirmed, apparently content at having satisfied the wishes of Lincoln Díaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the capos of the Cuban Liberty Council, whose terrorist past – widely documented by the FBI – does not seem to have come to his attention.
The OFAC’s self-confessed delay – which could last another eight weeks – is occurring during the summer season when the majority of those who requested permission to travel were hoping to use their annual vacations to visit relatives on the island.
Thousands of Cuban-Americans are already in the line that has been forming since the anti-family measures came into effect last June 30; anti-family measures that were set out by a president who fought his 2000 election campaign as the “family values candidate”.
Juan Zárate, who heads the Treasury Department’s Executive Office for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes (EOTF/FC) was accompanied on his stroll through the mafioso publication’s offices by Molly Millerwise from the Treasury’s Public Relations Office, who is equally unconcerned over the war on terror and instead devotes her time to terrorizing U.S. grandmothers who make cycling tours in Cuba, threatening them with fines.
The U.S. news agency AP recently revealed that the Treasury Department has just four staff to investigate the economic interests of international terrorist Osama Bin Laden, but 24 to pursue U.S. citizens who travel to Cuba. That information was published at a time when a new best-seller confirming Bush’s financial links with the royal families of Saudi Arabia – and in particular with the Bin Laden family - went on sale in U.S. bookshops.
The Bush family has interests in companies that benefited from contracts worth some $1.4 billion with the Saudis.
Between 1990 and 2003, OFAC agents carried out just 93 investigations into terrorism and since 1994 have collected only $9,425 worth of fines related to the violation of regulations against financing such activity. However, during the same period, they initiated 10,683 investigations in relation to Cuba and collected more than $8 million in fines.
Juan Zárate is the Treasury Department representative who personally attends to the Saudis. With much cordiality.
Churchgoers test Cuban travel ban
3 were fined after worshiping in Havana
Cindy Loose, Washington Post
Sunday, June 13, 2004
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Three Milwaukee Methodists fined $25,500 for worshiping with a sister church in Havana without the permission of the U.S. government are challenging the rules that severely restrict travel to Cuba. The Methodists claim the rules abridge their freedom of religion and are racially discriminatory.
The Methodists were part of a six-member delegation that visited their sister church via Canada without applying for a special permit. (Religious reasons are one of the possible exceptions to a virtual ban on travel to Cuba, but the application process, the Methodists knew, can be lengthy and imposing.)
The Bush administration said early last month that it would further limit U.S. travel to Cuba, while spending millions to promote democracy on the communist island.
Lawyer Art Heitzer said that at the time his Methodist clients were fined, in 1999, U.S. rules not only gave Cuban Americans more freedom to visit Cuba -- people with family in Cuba could visit once a year for humanitarian reasons -- but also explicitly stated that Cuban Americans could not be fined for a first offense. His clients, on the other hand, were socked the first time out. It's taken four years to challenge the fines because, until recently, the United States had no office set up to hear cases.
By the way, the selective prosecution issue cited above is now moot because the Bush administration threw the doors wide open last year for those visiting family in Cuba -- i.e., Cuban Americans -- even as it clamped down on travel for other Americans.
Molly Miller, a spokeswoman for the Office of Foreign Assets Control, said she could not comment on the case. OFAC, a branch of the Treasury Department, is charged with tracking international drug lords, terrorists who traffic in weapons of mass destruction and Americans who travel to Cuba.
The Association of Travel-Related Industry Professionals, a Washington D.C.-based lobbying group, has criticized what it described as the government's decision to prohibit a group of professionals from traveling to Cuba.
The group said the 70 people wanted to attend an international conference, the Symposium on Coma and Death, in Havana, March 9-12.
The group said the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control denied the group's travel license days before they were scheduled to depart.
"To prevent well-intended Americans from traveling to Cuba for legitimate and laudable scientific and academic purposes is disturbing, to say the least," said Michael Zuccato, ATRIP chairman and general manager of Cuba travel services.
ATRIP supports unrestricted global travel and is working to ease U.S. travel policies to Cuba.
Since President Bush's Oct. 10 Rose Garden announcement on stepped-up enforcement of the Cuba travel ban, the group said there have been a number of reports of legally licensed travelers prevented from traveling to Cuba.
"Our country was founded on the idea that free expression is good and important," Zuccato said. "When the people who develop new medical treatment regimes are prevented from taking part in international symposia because of politics, all Americans lose out."
Zuccato also related the denials to revenue losses for American companies as well as layoffs for American workers who provide travel services from the United States to Cuba.
"In a time when job creation is lagging, it would seem appropriate to encourage - not discourage - business growth," he said. "Yet, since the administration's crackdown on travel to Cuba, many travel service providers have seen their business drop by 30 percent, and sometimes more."
The U.S. government has not issued a statement on ATRIP's most recent complaints and has declined media requests to comment.
October 24, 2006
"About That Trip to Cuba ... "
When the FBI Came Calling
By MARGUERITE ROSE JIMENEZ
I did not anticipate when I traveled to Cuba for research in March 2006 that the trip would be of interest or concern to the FBI. The purpose of my trip was both transparent and legal. As a full time graduate student conducting research for my thesis, and directly related to my program of study, I'm legally authorized to travel to Cuba under the existing travel restrictions placed on United States Citizens prohibiting their travel to and from Cuba.
In light of the legality of travels, I assumed the call was a prank when a woman claiming to be from the FBI telephoned me at American University in Washington, DC in May 2006. Offering to call her back, I guessed that the number was likely to belong to Chinese take-out restaurant. In fact it was the number for the main FBI switchboard where they quickly connected me to Special Agent Alexandra Montiga. She was warm and friendly, saying she'd like to meet with me regarding my work and travel to Cuba. "This is standard," she claimed. "Something we do with everyone who travels to Cuba."
I've traveled to Cuba several times over the past four years and never heard anything about this. People I know travel to Cuba all the time, and are rarely if ever contacted by the FBI. This is not a "standard" I was aware of.
During a second conversation, the FBI agent asked me why I was hesitant to talk with her, and said that this was "very low-key" and "no big deal," she just wanted to ask me some questions about Cuba. She offered to take me out for lunch or dinner at a restaurant of my choice, stressing repeatedly that this was "informal" and "just the two of us meeting for lunch."
During our third conversation the following day, I told the agent I didn't feel comfortable meeting with her without first discussing it with university officials and having a third party present. She asked who I had been talking to about this. Could I give her specific names? I declined.
The FBI agent acted personally offended, claiming I was making things more complicated than they needed to be by involving people from my university.
I responded that since I was contacted on campus, regarding my travel to Cuba on the university's license, and being asked questions about other university faculty, I felt obligated to let the university know what was going on. I said I would be happy to cooperate, but would like more specific information on exactly why she wanted to talk to me and what she wanted to talk about.
The agent said she'd rather not go into it over the phone, but that basically, she wanted to help me. She informed me that the Cuban government had been known to target "certain types" of academics, and she'd like to warn me about things to watch out for, and find out from me if I had experienced any of the "targeting activities" while working in and on Cuba. She told me the meeting was "preventative" so I'd know what to look out for. She assured me, the meeting would be of more use to me, than her or the FBI. She said the FBI did this with all students traveling to Cuba. Again, this was news to me, and all the other people I know who travel frequently to Cuba.
I was encouraged by university officials to be cooperative and meet with the FBI, but with a lawyer from the university present and not down at the FBI offices, as had been requested. It turned out that the "informal" lunch invitation I received from Alexandra (just call me Alex), to "chat about Cuba," wasn't extended to a third party. I received a call from Special Agent Montiga (no longer so friendly), confirming that she and her boss in the Counter Intelligence Unit, would meet with me in a conference room at the university with an attorney present.
What Agent Montiga claimed over and over again was just a talk between the two of us "more as friends really," to give me information, and help me out, quickly turned into two and a half hours of mostly being questioned by her boss, Fred Buckley. Special Agent Buckley, they made sure to tell me a number of times throughout the conversation, had been involved in the investigation and eventual prosecution of Ana Belen Montes, a Cuban spy who'd infiltrated the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. They didn't want to see anything like that happen to me, they claimed. Not that they were suspecting me of anything, they just wanted to warn me what my work on Cuba could lead to if I wasn't careful about who I worked with. The agents told me that students like myself, were exactly what the Cuban government was looking for.
They gave me a detailed step by step account of how a "recruitment effort" takes place between Cuban officials and cooperative or "sympathetic" American citizens. An agent might befriend me for example, maybe ask me out for lunch, or offer to take me to a restaurant of my choice, very "low-key" of course. Then the Cuban Intelligence agent would ask me seemingly innocent questions about my work in Cuba, to try to get a feel for my views and contacts. The Cuban official would try to play things off, they claimed, as though they were just trying to be my friend, trying to help me out and give me information.
"Has any of this happened to you or anyone you know?" they asked.
The early warning signs they claimed would help me "spot a recruitment effort" by the Cuban government, had been followed almost exactly by Special Agent Alexandra Montiga, during our initial conversations over the phone. Other than that potential "recruitment effort" or "targeting," no, nothing like that had ever happened to me before.
Their questions continued, ranging from the very basic to the more personal.
Could this be called a "fishing operation"?
Why do I go to Cuba?
How do I get there?
Who first got me interested in Cuba?
What are their names?
Who do I stay with when I'm there?
Am I followed or monitored?
Who is responsible for me in Cuba? Who do I report to?
Do I meet with members of the Cuban government?
Have I ever met Fidel Castro?
Would I like to?
How much contact do I have with the people at the Cuban Interest Section in DC?
Do I ever see them outside of the Interest Section, or invite them to campus?
What are their names?
Do I recognize any of the photos they have of Cuban Intelligence agents operating in DC and Havana?
Do other professors on campus work on Cuba?
Do they meet with people in the Cuban government?
What are their names?
Before the meeting ended they gave me a binder containing information on Cuban counterintelligence operations, articles on people convicted of spying for the Cuban government, the recruitment process used by Cuban intelligence, and a list of "helpful sources" for further reading about the "terrorist activities" conducted by Cuba targeting the United States.
In a final attempt to get names of people I was "involved with" who also do Cuba work, Agent Montiga, reiterated how "low-key" this was, and that she didn't see why it was "such a big deal" for me to give them names, and that other students she'd spoken to had been significantly more helpful than I. I apologized but still refused to provide names without knowing the reason I was being asked. Regardless of this fact, they thanked me for my time, said to contact them if I remembered anything I might want to tell them in case something had "slipped" my mind, and that they would be in touch.
This was my first encounter with the FBI since I started focusing on Cuba several years ago. I assume it won't be my last. I promise though, that it will be both the first and the last time I allow myself to be intimidated into staying quiet and being "cooperative" when my civil liberties are so blatantly challenged.
Margaruite Rose Jimenez can be reached at: mrosejimenez@yahoo.com
Yeah I know one can go illegal like to Cuba via a third nation but if you get caught the penalty for this can be ridiculous. The FBI and all kind of other fanatical groups will be breathing down your neck for going to see family or going to worship. They should be busy handling the war on terror instead of terrorizing their own citizens who just wish to go home, go worship, or even just travel for that matter. Yes I feel the civil rights of everyone are being infringed on and no, I do not share your view that this is no big deal. Back when Clinton was in office and before this time the travel ban was not even enforced really. One could go as you say and it was no real problem. Only someone dumb enough to walk up to a customs agent and would say "I went to Cuba and spent X amount of dollars over what was legal at the time would stand a chance of them caring. Since Bush got into office getting US permission to go is next to impossible for any reason. This leaves the illegal way open but, I have MANY friends who have been popped coming back from visiting their families. They put them in a data base with a red flag on their passport anytime they go and come back from ANYWHERE after this they are harassed to no end. They are also often investigated by the feds for no other reason going to visit their families! One will find they have a whole lot less trouble getting into and leaving Cuba than they do coming or going from here. I swear when I come back to the USA it no longer looks like it once did. In fact it looks like a fascist state you are entering when you come back. Except here the accent is not foreign saying "your papers are not in order!" "You will have to be detained for visiting your family, or praying on an island that is off limits."
This is ridiculous. | |
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| Congress will put a stop to the travel ban for Americans going to Cuba.
Posted: 3/3/2007 11:18:16 PM | Fakle was the head of the 10 Congressmen visiting Cuba last december.
He stated, in Az, his position for approach toward Cuba, the very same day Raul announced his intention for closer ties with US. Both public appearances were made the following day of the power transfer in the island, on august 1, 2006.
Since the Bill is for proposal...you have you chance for the restitution of your violated civil rights.
Meanwhile, you can collect signatures from co-wokers and friends, promote campaigns for support, rallies, buying space on newspaper to state your opinion, contact local and states officials, ph calls to Senators, ACLU and others organizations, party leaders, religious groups and use this forums for your promotion to lift the ban.
If, for any reason you feel the CIA or FBI is right after you...write an short and concise essay, print it out and left the pile of papers at the top of a high raise building. The wind take care pretty well of the distribution. | |
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| Congress will put a stop to the travel ban for Americans going to Cuba.
Posted: 3/4/2007 12:38:43 PM | One can only hope that this bill will pass and have enough to stop the Veto that is sure to come from the president.
I am of the opinion that the US should try to repair relations with Cuba. At least on the level of being diplomatic instead of trying to constantly terrorize and antaganize. I equally think that the Cuban side should do their part to reduce their side of the problem with dissidents and the like. I know this is difficult for a nation that is going against the worlds only super power that is notorious for sending in covert terror groups and or coup attempts. (CIA backed or led operations) This does not excuse the extreme actions the government down there sometimes takes but, while I do not agree with what happens to some of the dissidents of Cuba, I also cant say I don't understand why in the face of such the government does such things. The things I hear of are appalling, and I feel dissidents are the best kind of patriot and a VERY important asset to any society.
I do think that Raul is serious about trying to do what his brother both would not and probably better put could never have done. (Make good changes both at home and with reguards to the relationship bettween the USA and Cuba)
The hatred for Fidel is so strong both with the business men/mafia types who lost their asses in Cuba when the revolution happened and the republicans and their Cuban American constituents (that came before the Mariel) It is important to note that the people who came Mariel and after were not political refugees most of them left for economic reasons. They are generally not haters of the government many that I know personally are not even political at all they just want to make a decent living here and help out family back home.
So we have a quite interesting situation here in the states. We have one group of Cubans (most of which are in south Florida) who are EXTREMELY political and vehemently opposed to the government in Cuba. We also have which would probably be the silent majority, of Cubans that are not very political at all, and just want to see this travel ban/embargo end so they can more easily help/visit their family members back home. The first group fled the Island or were exiled at some point. The second left the island for a better chance at wealth. It is easy to see why the feelings of the first group is so strong. As I said before I feel for those people and understand their anger. I merely think it is misdirected in this particular case. (desire for a travel ban/embargo that has no effect whatsoever on Castro. The common folk like us are the ones who suffer from such a thing.
PS cubanguy I appreciate your posts. It is not often people can talk about this topic without it becoming overly emotional/fanatical. I only hope the best for both the people on the Island and those of us who want to go back or simply visit.
I also hope that people like yourself who are not allowed to go back can soon be able to do so. Maybe something can be worked out with the Cuban government to allow some of the people not allowed to return to be able to return as long as they were not involved in CIA backed activities and such. (as I am sure you could see why they would never allow that.) | |
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| Congress will put a stop to the travel ban for Americans going to Cuba.
Posted: 2/11/2009 4:39:26 AM | FINALLY GOING TO HAPPEN!!!!!!!
Bill would drop travel restrictions to Cuba
By Alexia Campbell | South Florida Sun Sentinel
February 10, 2009
While most of the nation focused on the stimulus bill winding through Congress, nine representatives introduced a bill calling for an end to the 46-year-old ban on travel to Cuba.
The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 4 would allow American citizens unrestricted travel to Cuba for the first time since 1963. The bill by Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., and eight co-sponsors would also lift limits on travel by Cuban exiles living in the United States. The president would not be able to regulate travel to the island unless an armed conflict or armed danger arises.
The bill has gone too far, said Francisco "Pepe" Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation. Cuban exiles should visit their families whenever they want, but tourists shouldn't spend money in resorts that Cubans are barred from. "It's improper and should not be allowed until the Cuban government makes some reforms," he said.
That's not the case for Jose Lopez, president of the Broward County Click here for restaurant inspection reports Latin Chamber of Commerce and a staunch supporter of the trade embargo.
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Images of Cuba Images of Cuba Photos
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An in-depth look at the Cuban revolution
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Buena Vista Social Club's "Cachaito" dead
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Fidel Castro resigns as president of Cuba. He led the country for more than four decades, see the interactive timeline. Fidel Castro resigns as president of Cuba. He led the country for more than four decades, see the interactive timeline. Multimedia
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The Cuban Revolution: A timeline in pictures
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Ray Sanchez: Couple's home a monument to the Cuban revolution
"It's a betrayal and it's not going to resolve anything," said Lopez, who left Cuba in 1961.
Tourism dollars spent in Cuba will inject more oxygen into the dying Castro regime, he said. Lopez also thinks Cuban exiles who want to return to the island whenever they please are abusing their refugee privilege.
Many expect President Barack Obama to back a change in the policy. As a candidate for the presidency, Obama spoke in favor of reducing restrictions on remittances and travel to the island.
Co-sponsors to the bill include representatives Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Sam Farr, D-Calif., and Ron Paul, R- Texas.
Alexia Campbell can be reached at apcampbell@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4513.
WOOT!! finally some leaders who are taking their heads out of their asses on the travel ban issue.... I hope they swiftly get rid of that ban and start booking flights to Cuba right away. I am getting married soon and would love to go there for my honeymoon.
We will finally have our freedom to travel where we damn well please reinstated. The government should never be allowed to tell us where we can and can't go as far as travel goes. We should be the ones telling the government where to go not the other way around...
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