Annotations for Subject-headings: Economic Sanctions

The government of Cuba recently announced it's willing to compensate US companies for properties confiscated on the island more than 30 years ago. Also, a group of retired US military officers announced a visit to the island. Dialogue with Cuba has not been officially announced by the Clinton administration, but the mere possibility of dialogue has split the Cuban American community. With us from Miami to speak about the political climate in the Cuban community are reporters, Ivan Roman of El Nuevo Herald, Nancy San Martin, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, and Latino USA correspondent Emilio San Pedro of WLRN Radio in Miami. Welcome. Is there a growing division between more conservative elements of the Cuban community in Miami versus more modern elements? And what are those divisions based on?

The government of Cuba recently announced it's willing to compensate US companies for properties confiscated on the island more than 30 years ago. Also, a group of retired US military officers announced a visit to the island. Dialogue with Cuba has not been officially announced by the Clinton administration, but the mere possibility of dialogue has split the Cuban American community. With us from Miami to speak about the political climate in the Cuban community are reporters, Ivan Roman of El Nuevo Herald, Nancy San Martin, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, and Latino USA correspondent Emilio San Pedro of WLRN Radio in Miami. Welcome. Is there a growing division between more conservative elements of the Cuban community in Miami versus more modern elements? And what are those divisions based on?

Emotions are extremely high. We've had a couple of outbreaks between anti-Castro exiles and what we've termed sympathizers. And I think those incidents where there was actual fistfights surely indicate that there is a growing division between those who believe that peace talks are the way to go, and those who believe that tightening the embargo and perhaps only a violent overthrow is the way to go.

Emotions are extremely high. We've had a couple of outbreaks between anti-Castro exiles and what we've termed sympathizers. And I think those incidents where there was actual fistfights surely indicate that there is a growing division between those who believe that peace talks are the way to go, and those who believe that tightening the embargo and perhaps only a violent overthrow is the way to go.

So people in the area near Miami actually talk about the need to have a violent overthrow of Castro's Cuba that is put together by the United States? A military overthrow?

So people in the area near Miami actually talk about the need to have a violent overthrow of Castro's Cuba that is put together by the United States? A military overthrow?

[Interruption]I'm sorry. They don't only talk about it, but you have the paramilitary groups that actually plan for it.

[Interruption]I'm sorry. They don't only talk about it, but you have the paramilitary groups that actually plan for it.

I've always lived in Miami. And that's been a discussion in Miami for the last 30 years. I can guarantee you of that. But the thing is, I think primarily, that now you see people that have not been in the United States for 30 years or 25 years, people who came in 1980 from Cuba, people who came in the 80s, people who have recently arrived, and they feel a much deeper connection to Cuba in the sense of, I have a mother that lives in Cuba, or I have a sister that lives in Cuba and that I keep in contact with on a regular basis. And a lot of those people are the ones that are saying, "I want to be able to know that my relatives in Cuba are okay. I don't agree with the system over there. I don't like the system, but I don't want to punish the people who live there that are my relatives."

I've always lived in Miami. And that's been a discussion in Miami for the last 30 years. I can guarantee you of that. But the thing is, I think primarily, that now you see people that have not been in the United States for 30 years or 25 years, people who came in 1980 from Cuba, people who came in the 80s, people who have recently arrived, and they feel a much deeper connection to Cuba in the sense of, I have a mother that lives in Cuba, or I have a sister that lives in Cuba and that I keep in contact with on a regular basis. And a lot of those people are the ones that are saying, "I want to be able to know that my relatives in Cuba are okay. I don't agree with the system over there. I don't like the system, but I don't want to punish the people who live there that are my relatives."

And that's a very definitive group in the community that really feels strongly that there should be supplies, that there should be trade of some sort, so that the people receive just the basic essentials so that they can get back on their feet. And the anger is evident as it was outside of the radio station Radio Mambi recently when people really went at each other and they were all Cubans. Everybody that was punching each other for the first time, I think, really we're all Cubans fighting over this issue. And they were all beating each other up and screaming and calling each other communists or, you want to starve my kids, and all kinds of things like that. And the media, unfortunately, really hasn't helped much.

And that's a very definitive group in the community that really feels strongly that there should be supplies, that there should be trade of some sort, so that the people receive just the basic essentials so that they can get back on their feet. And the anger is evident as it was outside of the radio station Radio Mambi recently when people really went at each other and they were all Cubans. Everybody that was punching each other for the first time, I think, really we're all Cubans fighting over this issue. And they were all beating each other up and screaming and calling each other communists or, you want to starve my kids, and all kinds of things like that. And the media, unfortunately, really hasn't helped much.

The tensions continue because certain people who want a certain resolution in Cuba, who favor a hard line towards Cuba don't look toward very kindly towards any media that either advocates a different solution or simply tries to report the different points of view. And here in Miami, reporting two sides of the story can get you labeled as a communist in a second, and that happens, and that's happened for decades.

The tensions continue because certain people who want a certain resolution in Cuba, who favor a hard line towards Cuba don't look toward very kindly towards any media that either advocates a different solution or simply tries to report the different points of view. And here in Miami, reporting two sides of the story can get you labeled as a communist in a second, and that happens, and that's happened for decades.

And from your insider's perspective, who has President Clinton's ear on the issue? One group more than the other, or where does Clinton stand on this?

And from your insider's perspective, who has President Clinton's ear on the issue? One group more than the other, or where does Clinton stand on this?

Definitely the hardliners because they're the ones who got him some more Cuban votes, even though it wasn't overwhelming, but they're -- the most activist Cubans in his campaign who are speaking with the loudest voice are people who favor a hard line.

Definitely the hardliners because they're the ones who got him some more Cuban votes, even though it wasn't overwhelming, but they're -- the most activist Cubans in his campaign who are speaking with the loudest voice are people who favor a hard line.

At the same time, there are people who think that he can't possibly be as inclined towards a hard line as President Bush or Reagan may have been. And so there's that other group that is kind of waiting to see if there's some change in the policy from Washington, but really there hasn't been any significant policy since Clinton took office, so it's almost hard to gauge where he's going to come out.

At the same time, there are people who think that he can't possibly be as inclined towards a hard line as President Bush or Reagan may have been. And so there's that other group that is kind of waiting to see if there's some change in the policy from Washington, but really there hasn't been any significant policy since Clinton took office, so it's almost hard to gauge where he's going to come out.

I agree. I think he is playing both sides of the field. I think while he has publicly come out saying that he's not going to soften the embargo, at the same time, the State Department recently approved the humanitarian aid flotilla that left from Key West to Cuba in April. And that was the first time that a flotilla of that kind went to Cuba and the approval was almost immediately and a lot of people down here saw that as a shift in policy. So I think we're not exactly sure on how he's going to come out on this issue.

I agree. I think he is playing both sides of the field. I think while he has publicly come out saying that he's not going to soften the embargo, at the same time, the State Department recently approved the humanitarian aid flotilla that left from Key West to Cuba in April. And that was the first time that a flotilla of that kind went to Cuba and the approval was almost immediately and a lot of people down here saw that as a shift in policy. So I think we're not exactly sure on how he's going to come out on this issue.

Thank you all very much. Ivan Roman of El Nuevo Herald, Nancy San Martin, a general assignment reporter for the Sun-Sentinel, and a Emilio San Pedro of WLRN public radio.

Thank you all very much. Ivan Roman of El Nuevo Herald, Nancy San Martin, a general assignment reporter for the Sun-Sentinel, and a Emilio San Pedro of WLRN public radio.

I'm Maria Martin. Today on Latino USA, the administration's plans to crack down on illegal immigration.

The simple fact is that we must not and we will not surrender our borders to those who wish to exploit our history of compassion and justice.

Also, a possible change in US Cuba relations and a religious group's challenge to the Cuban embargo.

We're taking such dangerous things as powdered milk, pharmaceuticals.

And updating the Latin American folk music called La Nueva Canción.

There's always somebody out there trying to produce new stuff, and that's what Nueva Canción is all about.

That's all coming up on Latino USA, but first, Las Noticias.

You're listening to Latino USA. As a response to Cuba's economic crisis, premier Fidel Castro says Cubans may now legally possess American dollars and that more visas will be granted to exiles wishing to visit relatives on the island. Meanwhile, the State Department has issued new regulations permitting US phone companies to do business with Cuba. From Miami, Emilio San Pedro has more.

The new guidelines on telephone communications will make it easier for telephone companies to expand their service to Cuba. They also call for US phone companies to split revenues 50/50 with Cuba's telephone company. This has led some people to see this as a significant easing of the economic embargo against Cuba, but others in the Cuban exile community questioned the move because the government of Fidel Castro stands to earn in excess of 30 million dollars a year from improved telephone communications with the United States. According to businessman Teo Babun Jr. of Cuba USA Ventures, the guidelines just announced by the State Department were actually included in the Cuban Democracy Act signed into law last year. He says they don't really represent a softening of the economic embargo of Cuba.

A softening of the embargo would necessitate creating either a new bill or a retreating from some action that the United States had already announced. And in the case of this act, it is not a change, but rather it's just a development, if you will, or an announcement of the specific guidelines of a bill that had already been announced.

The State Department echoes the view that while the new guidelines do carve out a niche for Cuba to do business with the United States, they do not represent a departure from US law now governing the embargo. The next step is for us phone companies to begin negotiations with the Cuban telephone company using the new guidelines. Before that happens, the Cuban government wants the US to address its demand for the release of 85 million dollars of phone revenues earned by Cuba now being held in escrow in US banks. For Latino USA, I'm Emilio San Pedro.

That's news from Latino USA, Vidal Guzman.

More than 30 years ago after the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 and the failed US backed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, the United States government imposed an economic embargo of that island. Trade and travel to Cuba were prohibited under most circumstances. Under the Trading With the Enemies Act, that policy has softened and then heartened over the years. Most recently, it was tightened under legislation sponsored by Representative Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, the Cuban Democracy Act. Now that policy is being challenged by a group led by several religious leaders. It's an effort known as Pastors for Peace.

I'm Sandra Levinson. I'm from New York, but I started on the Duluth route.

Joe Callahan from Minneapolis.

I’m Henry Garcia from Chicago.

Latino USA caught up with a group Pastors for Peace in Austin a few days before they defied US government policy by taking medicines, food, and other aid to the economically strapped island of Cuba.

We're taking such dangerous things as tons of powdered milk. We are taking pharmaceuticals because they are actually distilling their own pharmaceuticals out of the herbs and plants in the fields. I've seen that with my own eyes just in April. They don't even have sutures to close surgical wounds.

Like the Reverend George Hill, pastor of First Baptist Church in downtown Los Angeles. Every one of the approximately 300 people involved in the motley caravan of school buses, vans, and trucks that make up the Pastors for Peace eight caravan opposes the US economic embargo of Cuba. So much so that they refuse to obtain the license the Custom Bureau requires in order to ship anything to that island.

We refuse to ask for a license. We refuse to accept the license if the government extends one to us. Our license is really our command from God to feed the hungry, to give clothes to those who are naked, to visit those in prison, to give a cup of cold water. We must do this to the least and even to those with whom we may have differences.

The Reverend Lucius Walker of the Salvation Baptist Church in Brooklyn is the founder of Pastors for Peace. His stand on Cuba has not made him very popular among those opposed to the government of Fidel Castro. And he says he's received a number of threats.

Telephone calls to my office, threatening to come over with a pistol and take care of me.

Still. Walker insists he is not engaging in politics, only in the highest tradition of religious principles and civil disobedience.

Of Jesus Christ, of Martin Luther King, of Gandhi, and all of those who are the good examples of what it takes to make social progress in a world that if left to its own devices could be a very ugly place to live.

[Music] About 30 members of the Pastors for Peace Group sit around a television three days before they're set to rendezvous with more caravan members to cross the border at Laredo. They're watching a video about how the animosity between the governments of Cuba and this country have separated families for as long as 30 years.

No quiero vivir allá, no me gusta vivir allá. Pero me gusta vivir aquí, pero quiero ver a mi hermana, y a mis sobrinos que nacieron allá. Que son familia, que son sangre. [Translation: I don’t want to live there, I don’t like living there. I like living here, but I want to see my sister, and my nephews that were born over there. They are family, they are blood.]

I grew up myself with my family always saying, you know, that the only way to get out is to go to US to have a better life, to live like normal people, to wear jeans, to eat gum, chew gum. It's like very idiotic things to think of when I live here now, and you know, I have to learn the language.

Elisa Ruiz Zamora was born in Cuba. She came to this country with her family when she was 18. She's now a young mother and student making her life here in the States. But when she heard about the caravan of aid to Cuba, she brought her family down to meet with a group. Her mother, brother, and grandfather are still on the island and she hopes some of the caravan's aid gets to them. It's amazing, she says, to see Americans get together to help another nation, one their government has told them is a dangerous enemy.

Tell the opposite to their government. The government's like to me, it's like they want to be the judges of the world. Say, what should happen here? What shouldn't happen, how Cubans should live their lives. And we have a mind of our own and we always have. There's...

The Clinton administration has so far given little indication that it's ready to lift the blockade on Cuba. During his election campaign, Mr. Clinton received considerable support from anti-Castro organizations like the Cuban American National Foundation, but with the easing of telephone communications with the island, some now believe there might be a small window of possible change on other fronts. Sandra Levinson is the director of the Center for Cuban Studies in New York.

They are looking, I think, in Washington for a way to change policy, which does not really give anything to Cuba. Of course, we will never do that, but will ease the tension somewhat, perhaps make it possible for more people to travel legally to Cuba. Make it possible for AT&T to put down some new telephone lines and perhaps give some of the 80 million dollars in escrow, which is accrued for Cuba to the nation, which so desperately needs that money. They don't care how much they have to pay for a telephone call. They want to talk to their mama.

As this program went to air, most of the Pastors for Peace caravan had been able to get across the border, except for two school buses and a few other vehicles. Among the drivers of those vehicles was the delegation leader, the Reverend Lucius Walker, who in the non-violent tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, began a hunger strike in protest. For Latino USA, I'm Maria Martin reporting.

A drama has been unfolding for more than two weeks now in the border town of Laredo, Texas. On July 29th, a group known as Pastors for Peace defied the US trade embargo against Cuba by taking dozens of vehicles carrying food, clothing, medicines, and other aid to Cuba across the US border. But one of those vehicles, a yellow school bus, was stopped by the customs service. Today that bus sits in a federal compound in Laredo. It's occupants refusing to leave the bus and now starting their third week of a hunger strike. From Laredo, Latino USA's Maria Martin reports.

I see a whole bunch of semis waiting in line to go to Mexico, and in the middle of all that mess, there's this little school bus and I feel sorry.

Retired Laredo social worker, Manuel Ramirez sits on a sidewalk near the border wearing binoculars. He's trying to get a better glimpse of the scene across the street, there off to the side of the Lincoln Juarez Bridge. in an enclosed lot where semi-trucks wait to be inspected by the custom service sits a yellow school bus with a sign which reads ‘End The Embargo Against Cuba’. Inside the bus, 12 people ages 22 to 86 wait out the blazing hot August days. They've refused to leave the vehicle and to take any solid food, since the bus was seized by the customs service on July 29th. Among them is Pastors for Peace leader, the Reverend Lucius Walker of Brooklyn.

We see a nation that is threatened, a nation that is not our enemy, with which we are not at war. We were asked by the churches in Cuba to take this mission on and having responded affirmatively to their request, we have come to see for ourselves the importance of what we are doing.

What the Reverend Walker and Pastors for Peace hope to accomplish by their hunger strike and their attempt to take aid materials to Cuba is to call into question this country's 32-year old prohibition against trade and travel to that island. Pamela Previt of the Customs Service says her agency tried to help the aid caravan get through the border smoothly, but that this bus clearly violated US Law.

Customs detained 29 boxes of prescription medication, four computers, and five electric typewriters, which are prohibited items according to the embargo. The group specifically claimed that it was the vehicle itself that was to be exported. And because of that customs seized the bus.

The Reverend Walker says he was actually surprised when the bus he was driving was seized. Even though the group stated they were making the trip to challenge the embargo against Cuba.

They simply were not able to stop it because this was a human wave and a vehicular wave of people who were determined that this is a law that can no longer be enforced.

The law Walker refers to is the Trading with the Enemy Act enforced by the Treasury Department. So far that government agency has not responded to a proposal from the Pastors for Peace to allow someone from the World Council of Churches to escort the yellow school bus to Havana. On the 10th day of the hunger strike, there was a rally, in Laredo to support the hunger strikers and an end to the embargo against Cuba. A microphone was passed across the fence and the strikers told the crowd they were prepared to stay indefinitely.

We are all determined to stay on the school bus until the school bus goes to Cuba.

Cuba is not perfect, the government's not perfect, but it's way better than what they have in Latin America. And I realize that…

That among the 12 people on hunger strike is 32 year old Camilo Garcia who left Cuba four years ago.

And I decided that I will do everything I can to help the revolution to survive, and I will stay in here as long as it take no matter what it take, even if it take my life. So what?

The 100 degree heat, the exhaust fumes and the liquid only fast are taking their toll on the health of the hunger strikers. Doctors brought in by the Customs Service and by Pastors for Peace are monitoring the group's health condition regularly. For Latino USA, I'm Maria Martin reporting.