Dear friends,

As you are all aware by now the destruction caused by Hurricane Gustav to Pinar del Rio and Isle of Youth in Cuba has been devastating.  The world is just beginning to get a glimpse of such tragedy.

We believe the moment calls for action NOW. It is the reason for this letter.  Different organizations and politicians have called for a moratorium of current travel and remittance restrictions to the island.  We wholeheartedly support such an initiative. But knowing the mindset of the current administration, and being realistic about election year politics, we do not envision any sort of positive change in the current restrictions that could help the Cuban people.

So we urge you to choose the most sensible, most direct and most effective way to help and that is to contribute monetarily using tax exempt donations to any of these humanitarian agencies:

JEWISH SOLIDARITY, a 501.C.3 not for profit organization with a license to secure donations for Cuba relief.  You can send your donation check to: JEWISH SOLIDARITY, attention: Maricusa, 100 Beacom Boulevard, Miami, FL 33135.  Check should be marked “humanitarian relief”.

CATHOLIC CHARITIES/Caritas Cubanas, a not for profit agency of the Catholic Church who also holds a license to provide aid to Cuba. Checks should be made out to Catholic Relief Services and sent to Catholic Relief Services, P.O. Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203-7090.  Checks should be marked:  “For Cuba Gustav Relief”.

For those of you in the Miami area who would prefer to take food items in lieu of a check donation, you can do so by taking these to The Daughters of Charity at 500 NW 63 Avenue in Miami.  They also have a license to send aid to Cuba and are sending two containers in the next few days.  Items they have expressed a desire in getting are: powdered milk, evaporated milk, canned little hot dogs, lentils in packages, black and red beans in packages.

WE BELIEVE THESE ARE THE FASTEST AND MOST EFFECTIVE WAYS TO HELP NOW.  RECIPIENTS WILL BE THE PEOPLE OF CUBA AND IN NO WAY WILL THE DONATIONS BE RESTRICTED DUE TO RELIGIOUS OR POLITICAL AFFILIATION.

THE LARGER NEED TO FUNDAMENTALLY OVERHAUL U.S. POLICY REMAINS.  BUT THE MOMENT CALLS FOR URGENT HELP.

Muchas gracias.

The Cuban American Commission for Family Rights

July 21, 2008

Mr. Thomas Shannon

Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere

United States Department of State

Washington, DC

 
Dear Mr. Shannon:

The Cuban American Commission for Family Rights was created in 2004 to protect the rights of American families of Cuban descent so they could visit their families in Cuba. The decree issued by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba not only limits these visits, redefines family, does not address the needs for emergency travel  but more than anything it violates our community’s sense of family values and thus it is overwhelmingly repudiated by Cuban Americans.  This fact is supported by numerous polls that show that close to 80% of Americans of Cuban descent support unlimited travel to the island to visit relatives.

Our organization represents thousands of persons affected by these regulations.  We are writing today to respectfully urge this administration to issue a humanitarian visa to Adriana Perez so she can visit her husband, Gerardo Hernandez currently serving prison in the United States. He has been in prison for more than a decade without seeing his wife.  By granting her the visa to visit her loved one the United States would be enacting a gesture of humanitarianism that will send a profound message to the rest of the world.  By acting upon one of our most fundamental of principles, the rights of families to visit and nurture each other, we will demonstrate that the issue of family values is not just a catch phrase used during political campaigns, but rather one worthy of action and thus transcending the trappings of political ideology.

Americans are known worldwide for their concern for family and country.  Shouldn’t our government reflect this concern by allowing families to gather, to share a laugh, a tear, a moment; to have the right to hug, and confirm their love for each other?

We sincerely hope that this visa is granted, and thank you in advance for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

Alvaro Fernandez                                                       Silvia Wilhelm

President                                                                     Executive Director

 
Cc: Senators Dodd, Enzi, Baucus, Dorgan; Reps Rangel, Delahunt, Flake, Serrano

By David Rieff

From the Sunday, July 13, New York Times magazine   

On the surface, political life in Cuban Miami seems unchanged. Little Havana is still partly a Disney version of a displaced Cuba and partly a genuine community hub, where families who have long since left for suburbia still come for nostalgic weekend lunches. At the Versailles Restaurant, the community newspapers preaching no compromise with Castro are all that are on offer. For almost four decades, the Versailles has been an obligatory stop for Washington politicians courting the Cuban-American community, visits that, as photographs in the restaurant attest, have often involved putting on a white guayabera, the four-pocket dress shirt that often replaces a coat and tie in the Caribbean. This familiar theater of intransigence — a staple of South Florida life at least since the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, when C.I.A.-backed Cuban exiles tried to overthrow the new Communist regime — is ubiquitous. Some Cuban-Americans point hopefully to a softening in the Spanish-language, Cuba-focused radio outlets that now dominate the South Florida market. But for an outsider, what is striking is the degree to which the hard-line stance endures, since it might have been supposed that 50 years of failure to influence events on the island might have led to the conclusion that the hard-line position needed to be reconsidered. Most officeholders in Florida and, for that matter, most national politicians continue to at least pay lip service to the dream of a post-Communist Cuba, even though, early this year, Fidel Castro succeeded in seamlessly handing over power to his brother Raúl — testimony, if any was needed, to the stability of the regime.

Yet if Cuban Miami does indeed continue to dream, it is also beginning, quietly, tentatively and painfully, to adjust. Backstage, something very new is happening. Call it the Miami Spring, or Cuban-American glasnost.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/magazine/13CUBANS-t.html?ref=magazine

A House subcommittee (Financial Services) on June 17th added language to the appropriations bill that would ease travel restrictions for Cuban Americans wishing to visit family and would facilitate agricultural sales to Cuba. The result of the subcommittee meeting is an appropriations bill that allows for Cuban Americans to travel to Cuba once per year and expands the definition of family to include cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. Get more details from this Reuters article http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1738649220080617 Or in Rep. Serrano’s words: “This mark also includes provisions to liberalize travel to Cuba for Americans who have family members living in that nation. There is no reason to place harsh restrictions on those who simply wish to visit close family members. In addition, the bill contains a provision to facilitate agricultural trade with Cuba, allowing more American farmers to sell their products to Cuba.”

For the full story visit LAWG

Members of Congress who need strong encouragement:

• Rodney Alexander (R) LA-5 (Alexandria, Monroe areas) tel. 202.225.8490
• Jo Bonner (R) AL-1 (Mobile, Foley areas) tel. 202.225.4931
• Allen Boyd (D) FL-2 (Tallahassee, Panama City areas) 202.225.5235
• Chet Edwards (D) TX-17 (Waco, College Station areas) 202.225.6105
• Jack Kingston (R) GA-1 (Savannah, Brunswick, Baxley, Valdosta areas) 202.225.5831
• John Peterson (R) PA-5 (State College, Titusville areas) 202.225.2565
• Dennis Rehberg (R) MT-At large (full state) 202.225.3211
• Ciro Rodriguez (D) TX-23 (San Antonio area) 202.225.4511
• Steven Rothman (D) NJ-9 (Hackensack, Jersey City areas) 202.225.5061
• Tim Ryan (D) OH-17 (Youngstown, Akron, Warren areas) 202.225.5261
• Adam Schiff (D) CA-29 (Pasadena area) 202.225.4176
• Zach Wamp (R) TN-3 (Chattanooga, Oak Ridge areas) 202.225.3271
• Frank Wolf (R) VA-10 (Herndon, Winchester areas) 202.225.5136

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS

Click to read the original article from The Miami Herald.

TALLAHASSEE —

About 120 Cuban families and their travel agents urged Gov. Charlie Crist on Wednesday to veto a bill that would impose tough new regulations and penalties on companies that arrange travel to Cuba. The bill, sponsored by Miami Rep. David Rivera and Eustis Sen. Carey Baker, would require companies licensed by the U.S. State Department to provide travel services to Cuba and ”any other terrorist nation” to pay a $2,500 annual registration fee — up from $300 — and post a bond of up to $300,000.

Travel companies complain that the measure will increase their costs, force them to defend against unfounded allegations by people with political motives, and make it nearly impossible for many financially strapped families with relatives in Cuba to afford the trips home.

”There is nothing in this bill that protects you as a consumer. It is basically a witchhunt from people who have their own political agenda,” said Tessie Aral of ABC Charters Travel in Miami, who organized the protest in the state capital. Her company flies 20,000 visitors to Cuba a year on flights that operate five days a week.

Sylvia Wilhelm, executive director of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights, believes the bill is another election-year attempt to look tough on Cuba, similar to the tightened travel restrictions imposed by President Bush in 2004. But she said the measure could backfire this year because she believes most people in the Cuban American community want to see the tight travel restrictions lifted.

”No government has the right to separate families,” she said. “The only thing [the Bush restrictions] have done is create havoc in the Cuban family. Our group is going to be actively campaigning against any candidate who supports regulations that separate families.”

Members of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights (CACFR) traveled to Tallahassee, FL, today (Wed. June 11) to meet with Townson Fraser, Governor Charlie Crist’s deputy chief of staff and legislative affairs director. During the almost hour-long meeting, the issue discussed was Senate Bill 1310, the law introduced in the Florida legislature by State Rep. David Rivera, from Miami, which passed both the Florida House and Senate, and should go into effect on July 1.

We were there to insist that Governor Crist veto the law for reasons outlined during the meeting.

“Not only is the law unfair and discriminatory,” Fraser was told. But if allowed to take effect it will only create greater chaos and pain in a community already rattled by federal regulations that limit family visits to once every three years; limits remittances; and defines who family members one can visit and send remittances to.

Rep. Rivera claims 1310 will help Florida regulate travel to Cuba, calling it a terrorist state. What the Miami republican fails, or refuses, to realize is that Cuba travel is already heavily regulated by the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury through OFAC.

At a time when Florida is facing cutbacks to education, health care for children, social services and a host of much needed state services due to a receding economy, Rivera and his ilk want to create and even costlier bureaucracy which will only mirror at times federal law and regulations. At the same time, 1310 will probably put a number of Cuba travel providers out of business creating greater unemployment and loss of revenue to the state.

In a hot 90 degree day in Tallahassee, more than 100 Cuban Americans from Miami also traveled all night in buses where we all participated in a rally after the meeting with the governor’s office. From children to elderly citizens participated peacefully, asking the governor to veto 1310.

Stay tuned for further developments…

Alvaro F. Fernandez

Florida Senate Bill 1310, which will further limit the ability of Cuban families on both sides of the Florida Straits to stay in touch with each other, is both cruel and discriminatory, say members of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights (CACFR) as they prepare to take their case to the governor’s office in Tallahassee on Wednesday morning. Joined by a group of other organizations and Cuban Americans from Miami, Commission directors will meet with key staffers from the governor’s office to discuss how this bill will negatively impact not only families, but businesses, jobs and in the end, Florida residents’ pocketbooks.  A peaceful demonstration is planned for that same morning in Tallahassee in front of the Capitol Building and the governor’s office. A group of Miamians will have traveled all night in buses to attend the rally.  

“Our hope is to stop this cruel and discriminatory law from going into effect on July 1,” said Alvaro F. Fernandez, Commission president. “If 1310 does become law, family travel to Cuba would become even more arduous and expensive. It is why we will appeal to the governor’s humanity and understanding of what is good for our state and our people,” added Fernandez.

“It is a sad state of affairs when for the sake of electoral politics basic family rights are violated”, said Silvia Wilhelm, Commission executive director. “I thought we had seen the end of it after the 2004 regulations.”

CACFR was created in June 2004, solely for one purpose, to combat the cruel regulations imposed by the Bush Administration limiting family travel to Cuba to once every three years, with no exceptions, not even for humanitarian reasons. Included in the new measures was a limit of remittances one could send to those family members. Most insulting, some felt, was the fact that the administration deemed fit to define who a Cuban family member could be — excluding aunts, uncles and cousins, for example. 

A recent Florida International University (FIU) poll revealed that 66 percent of Miami Cuban Americans were in disagreement with these regulations. Two years ago when there was hope that U.S. Rep. William Delahunt would present a bill in Congress eliminating the anti-Cuban family measures, more than 14,000 persons signed a CACFR petition in favor of the Delahunt bill.

The Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times have both written editorials very critical of the Florida legislation (SB 1310) which takes effect July 1. Businesses affected by the new Florida measure on travel to Cuba have categorically stated they will file a lawsuit against the state if the legislation is signed by Governor Crist. According to experts, this is a losing case for the state and will therefore end up costing all Florida taxpayers in court expenses and time wasted.  

The state has yet to address Senate Bill 1310’s regulations and procedures. Companies flying to Cuba at this time are at a loss as to what the next steps will be. Experts agree that one of the immediate results of the law will be chaos. It is also expected that the 45-minute air flight will be prolonged since a third leg to the flight will probably be added making the trip also more expensive.

By DAMIEN CAVE

Taken from The New York Times.

MIAMI — Baltasar Martin Garrote desperately wants to see his mother turn 86 in August at her home in Cuba. But an American law will not let him.

Cuban-Americans can visit the island of Cuba only once every three years, so because he spent 12 days there last October, he must wait, hoping and praying that his mother, who has cancer, lives until 2010.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Mr. Garrote said. “If you have sick relatives, you should have a right to see them. That’s not political.”

Click to read the full article

Three State ACLU Affiliates, Center for Constitutional Rights Join First Challenge to Increased Restrictions on Family Visits Announced in 2004
Versión en español: http://www.aclufl.org/spanish/noticias/vilaseca.cfm
MIAMI and MONTPELIER, Vt. – American Civil Liberties Union Affiliates in Florida, Vermont and Massachusetts, along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), today filed a joint friend-of-the-court brief in Vilaseca v. U.S. Department of Treasury, a federal lawsuit in Vermont challenging severe restrictions imposed by the Bush Administration on travel to visit close family members in Cuba.

The lawsuit is the first challenge to the U.S. government’s family visit restrictions, which were announced in 2004 but are being challenged now by four individuals who have current urgent needs to visit with elderly or ill relatives. The regulations prohibit Americans from visiting close family members in Cuba more than once every three years, instead of every year as had been the case for many years, even in emergency humanitarian situations. For the first time, the regulations also prevent Americans from visiting aunts, uncles or cousins at all. Anyone who violates the new rules could face fines of up to $1 million and up to ten years in jail.

“The ability of Cuban-Americans to visit relatives in Cuba, especially at crucial moments in the history of the family such as the celebration of marriages, or visiting a sick relative in a hospital, or attending a relative’s funeral, is essential to maintain family integrity,” said Howard Simon, ACLU of Florida Executive Director. “The Government of the United States should not be in the business of breaking up families by restricting their ability to visit each other. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, clearly states that ‘Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.’

“Cuban-Americans with family members in Cuba should be able to visit their relatives – particularly under demanding situations such as death and illness,” Simon added. “If the Government’s goal is to end the communist regime in Cuba and progress toward a more democratic society, the answer is to encourage open dialogue, not shut it down. Further isolating Cuba prevents more contact with dissident groups that will foster the growth of democratic institutions. The Government is standing in the way of progress for Cubans here in the U.S. and in Cuba.”

The ACLU argues that the due process right to preserve family relationships is deeply rooted in the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Further, the ACLU points to international human rights law that confirms that the preservation of family relationships is “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.”

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of four individuals, Armando Vilaseca, Yurisleidis Leyva Mora, Jared Kingsbury Carter, and Maricel Lucero Keniston, all of whom reside in Vermont. The parties are asking the court to enter an injunction requiring the Government to cease enforcement of the “Family Visit Regulations” and allow Vilaseca and other Cuban-Americans to resume annual and humanitarian travel to Cuba for family reasons.

The amicus brief was filed today in the United States District Court of Vermont. Although it was filed in Vermont, the result of the lawsuit will have the greatest impact in Florida, where most Cuban-Americans reside.

The ACLU acknowledges and is grateful to the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP for their hard work with the three ACLU affiliates and CCR.

The amicus brief was prepared by James L. Messenger, Malick W. Ghachem, Okey Onyejekwe, Wasif Qureshi and Arthur D’Andrea, all of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, which represented the groups pro bono. Other lawyers on the brief include Mitchell L. Pearl, of Langrock Sperry & Wool, LLP in Burlington, VT; Randall Marshall, ACLU of Florida Legal Director; John Reinstein and Sarah Wunsch, ACLU of Massachusetts; and Darius Charney, Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City.

Taddeo tells Ros-Lehtinen to “stop tearing families apart”
…We must stop tearing Cuban and Cuban-American families apart. Who can think it is right to keep a daughter from seeing her dying father? Who believes that it is a good policy that prevents a young man from sending money home to his grandmother? These restrictions are inhumane and they go against the family values of all Americans.

The time has come to lift the 2004 travel and remittance restrictions. I hereby call on Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen – who was so instrumental in the Bush Administration’s decision to impose the ban – to abandon her previous position and to support Cuban and Cuban-American families.