Center for International Policy

July 31, 2006

U.S. visitors less welcome in Cuba
As part of a shifting of diplomatic priorities, Cuba is refusing visas to some U.S. delegations, but is maintaining its interest in U.S. visitors looking to do business on the island.

BY PABLO BACHELET
Miami Herald

WASHINGTON - The Cuban government has become more selective of the U.S. groups that it allows in, disillusioned with efforts to lobby for easing U.S. sanctions and trying to shift its foreign policy priorities elsewhere, Cuba watchers say.

Organizers of two missions -- one of congressional staff members and another of former chiefs of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Cuba -- say they have been denied visas in recent months. But more trade-related missions have been given the green light.

''My guess is that they are having some discussions over foreigners coming, and until they come to some agreement, they're going to sort of hold off,'' said Wayne Smith of the Center for International Policy, a liberal Washington think tank that promotes more contacts with Cuba.

Smith was organizing the delegation of former heads of the U.S. Interests Section, which serves as a quasi-embassy, as the two countries have no formal diplomatic relations. Smith is a former Interests Section chief and has been critical of U.S. policy toward Cuba.

Many experts believe the rejections underscore the increasingly low priority that the United States represents for Cuban leader Fidel Castro's government.

''For well over a year, they have judged, correctly, that there is little chance that Congress is going to force a change in U.S. policy,'' said Phil Peters, a Cuba analyst with the conservative Lexington Institute think tank, based in Arlington, Va. ``So they turn their diplomatic energies to greener pastures, where the political and economic benefits are greater: Venezuela, China, Mercosur.''

U.S. officials have estimated that Cuba receives up to $2 billion in subsidies from Venezuela, and experts say China is Havana's second-biggest trading partner when donations and other subsidies are included. Cuba has also signed cooperation agreements with the Mercosur trade bloc, made up of Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Paraguay and Uruguay.

This month, Castro traveled to Argentina to attend the latest Mercosur trade summit.

In contrast, the Bush administration has systematically tightened the enforcement of sanctions against Cuba, making it harder for Cuban Americans to travel to the island and send remittances or gift parcels. It has cracked down on everything from religious and student exchanges to banking and agricultural transactions with the island.

Efforts by some lawmakers and Cuban lobbyists to ease or overturn those sanctions have been systematically defeated, first by a White House veto threat and, since mid-2005, by a majority in the House of Representatives opposed to any changes in U.S. policy.

The Cuban Interests Section in Washington did not return calls seeking comment, but Cuba appears to retain an interest in receiving U.S. visitors focused on business.

Kirby Jones, who for almost 30 years has been advising U.S. businesses that want to do business with Cuba, says he has not been affected by Cuba's new selectivity.

Earlier this month, he took a business delegation from Corpus Christi, Texas, headed by Rep. Salomon Ortiz, the Democratic congressman from the area.

''It all worked out very well, standard operating procedures,'' he said.

But he added that ''the U.S. is less relevant to Cuba than it ever has been'' and that Cubans have concluded that under President Bush, ``any change of policy is going to be difficult, if not impossible, and what can be done will be done at the margins.''

The Corpus Christi delegation met with Cuban economic officials and had dinner with Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban National Assembly.

In March, the World Security Institute, a Washington group that promotes research and understanding of international issues, took a delegation of academics and energy specialists to Havana and met with Castro for eight hours.

Some specialists believe Cuba may be deliberately refusing some U.S. delegations so that organizers complain more to Congress and the media.

Cuba goes through ''peaks and valleys'' in assessing the need for visible relationships with the United States, said John S. Kavulich, a senior policy advisor with the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a group in New York City that keeps tabs on U.S.-Cuba economic ties.

Like a Cuban cigar, he said, the more it is restricted, the more people want one.

Cuba ''feels muscular as a result of its relationship with Venezuela and China,'' Kavulich said, and by ''implying that the United States is no longer important'' those wanting to participate in the delegations will complain that Washington is missing an opportunity to be relevant in Cuba.