Center for International Policy

Baseless New Impediments to Family Travel

By Wayne S. Smith
Center for International Policy
June 2, 2008

Showing their usual predilection for double standards, the same hard-line Cuban-Americans who cheer the arch-terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and honor him at elaborate dinners in Miami, have at the same time pushed for passage of a bill in the Florida State Legislature that would prevent - or seriously impede - other Cuban-Americans from visiting their families on the island. Drafted virtually in secret and passed without debate, this bill, SB 1310, will, if it stands, force the few carriers still flying passengers from Florida to Cuba to put up so large a bond - and under such unacceptable conditions - that most will be forced to suspend service. Already limited to one visit every three years, Cuban-Americans could now face new difficulties in getting there at all.

And what is the justification for this new measure? Supposedly, it is an "anti-terrorist" measure: to discourage transactions with any country on the State Department's list of "state sponsors of terrorism." Cuba has been on the list since 1982. Perhaps, in the distant past, there could have been some argument for placing it there. Now, however, the State Department, strain though it may, can present no evidence at all to justify its inclusion. Cuba is not involved in any terrorist activities the State Department can point to. And while in its annual report (this one dated April 30, 2008), the Department claims Cuba opposes American counterterrorism policy, not only can it point to no example of this, but studiously avoids mentioning that, to the contrary, just after the 9/11 attacks, Cuba not only condemned the attacks and expressed its solidarity with the American people, but also signed all twelve UN anti-terrorist resolutions and offered to sign agreements with the U.S. to cooperate in combating terrorism. That is hardly "opposition."

This year's State Department report, as did last year's, complains that "the Cuban government did not attempt to track, block, or seize terrorist assets, although the authority to do so is contained in Cuba Law 93 against acts of terrorism."
But any lawyer worth his or her salt would respond to that by asking "what assets?" There is no evidence at all that Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organization has any assets in Cuba. And so, there is nothing to seize. The only thing the statement makes clear is that Cuba does have laws on the books against acts of terrorism. How, one might ask, does that square with the report's description of it as a "terrorist state"?

If what is in its annual report is the best evidence the State Department can come up with, then its claim that Cuba is a "state sponsor of terrorism" is phony indeed. For the Florida State Legislature to impede flights to Cuba, and with them family visits, in order to adhere to this nonsense is embarrassing. If our goal is more openness in Cuba and more liberties for its citizens, then we should be encouraging all Americans, Cuban-Americans included, to travel to the island, not blocking them from doing so - and certainly not for so absurd a reason as this.

June 1 has come and gone and the governor of Florida has still neither signed nor vetoed the bill. It thus remains up in the air until July 1, when it will become law even if he has not signed it.