Dear Mr. President Elect:

We take great pride in congratulating you on your historic victory last month and look forward to January when you take the oath of office as the 44 President of the United States. We are truly thrilled and proud for the opportunity to have participated in this important moment for our nation and for the world.

Our commission, with hundreds of members throughout the United States, was formed in response to the cruel restrictions imposed by the Bush Administration against the Cuban family in the summer of 2004. The inhumanity of limiting family visits to once every three years; the limitations on economic help to our family members; and the unjust definition of who those family members could be drove us to work relentlessly for the repeal of these, in our opinion, un-American measures.

Most of us will never forget your visit to Miami’s Little Havana more than a year ago when a young Senator from Illinois gave so many of us hope by promising to “lift all restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba by Americans of Cuban descent.” This statement, so right and so necessary, was viewed as almost revolutionary in this South Florida city. And with this letter, we respectfully ask that you please keep your word by signing an executive order as soon as you can thereby fulfilling the promise.

At this critical moment in our history, we are convinced that an Obama Administration will again show the world that Americans lead by their actions and the goodness that is inherent in all of us.

Very cordially yours,

Alvaro F. Fernandez                                              

President     

Silvia Wilhelm

Executive Director                                                        

This note is in response to the recent appearance of Lieutenant Colonel Chris Simons in the Miami TV program, A Mano Limpia with Oscar Haza, (Channel 41) which took place on Wednesday, October 8^th and followed up articles published in El Nuevo Herald on October 9 and 10.

During Mr. Simmons presentation on the above mentioned local TV program he stated that I had been a Cuban agent, now retired after the FBI convinced me to change my “ways”.  He also stated that I had had multiple sessions with the FBI on this issue and had subsequently cooperated with and followed instructions from US government officials on Cuba related issues.

For the record ALL of these statements by Mr Simmons are completely false.

I have never worked for the government of Cuba or followed instructions by said government.  On the issue of the FBI meetings, several years ago I had to contact the FBI point person in Miami in charge of overseeing Cuban American groups. The reason for my phone call had to do with my own protection having received threats of impending bodily harm over the phone for my work of trying to change US policy towards Cuba.  I have not had a meeting with anyone from the FBI since then.  Neither have I followed instructions from US government agents on my Cuba work. 

I found it quite interesting when Mr. Haza asked Mr. Simmons if he knew that I was married to a high ranking officer in the US military.  The high ranking officer he was alluding to who happens to have my husband’s same name is the former Head of the Southern Command, General Charles Wilhelm. My husband, Dr. Charles Wilhelm, a physician, is a decorated Vietnam flight surgeon who has not been in the military since the Vietnam War ended.   Is it possible that Mr. Haza could be so misinformed?

For the past 15 years I have worked in programs that promote people to people contacts between the people of the United States and those of Cuba; humanitarian projects that assist the people of Cuba and as a community activist both in Miami and Washington advocating against the travel restrictions that separate Cuban families and travel restrictions that limit the rights of ALL Americans to travel.

You must ask why I do the work I do when it obviously causes such personal and professional heartache, when it is a constant battle against personal defamation, when it is a daily struggle to defend one of the greatest gifts of our US constitution, our freedom of speech in a city we call home, Miami?  When I returned to Cuba in 1994 after a 33 year absence it became obvious to me that the deep and painful schism in the Cuban family caused by both governments’ counterproductive policies had resulted in a family feud of enormous proportions. Because I saw then as I continue to see today the horrendous results of this pain in the Cuban family. Because I believe deeply that this family feud can only come to an end thru engagement, whether thru unrestricted travel, joint educational exchanges, serious people to people work and respectful dialogue. This family feud has kept both countries’ policies hostage and this must change.  My work will not cease until US policy changes and Cubans find a way thru the painful but necessary process of national reconciliation.

The politics of personal assassination to silence voices of dissent in the South Florida community are a well known and well established reality. Is this another example of attempts to silence moderate voices in our community by using the new label “agent” (which in our community immediately translates to spies) instead of the past labels of Dialogueros and Communists.  These tactics must cease in our community especially when one of the vehicles used to conduct such character assassination is through the use of a federally regulated entity. Perhaps the time has come to take legal action to accomplish this goal.

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