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“We need to revise the U.S. travel
policy to Cuba”
— Congressman Jim McDermott
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“Every visit by an
American citizen to a loved one in Cuba will do more
to promote freedom and democracy than all the
leaflets and all the broadcasts and all the saber
rattling that we have tried unsuccessfully in the
last half century,” stated the deputy, condemning
the fact that Sergeant Lazo, who was awarded the
Bronze Star, has been prevented from visiting his
sons in Havana
BY GABRIEL MOLINA
VARIOUS Congress members and
journalists in the United States have highlighted
the brutal case of Sergeant Carlos Lazo, who was
decorated with a Bronze Star by the same government
that is now denying him the right to travel to Cuba
to visit his sons.
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“Before, you could visit Cuba
every
year, once a year and even more on humanitarian
grounds. I didn’t qualify and I had to go back
to Iraq without seeing my sons. I can’t do it
now either, because three years haven’t passed
yet,” complained Sergeant Lazo.
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On January 18 and 20, the Army
Times of Virginia and The Miami Herald
respectively, reported how Lazo has appealed to the
Hispanic Group in the House of Representatives to
provide assistance in his endeavor.
The National Guard sergeant from
Washington wanted to visit his sons in Cuba during a
two-week leave break he had been awarded in Iraq and
subsequently traveled to Miami to take a flight to
Havana.
There he discovered that while he
was serving in Iraq, President Bush announced on
June 30, 2004 that Cubans resident in the United
States and U.S. citizens of Cuban origin can now
only visit their families once every three years,
without any special exceptions.
The measure was taken by Bush to
satisfy the demands of Cuban-American politicians in
Miami, who imposed it as a condition to place more
pressure on Cuba before supporting his reelection
aspirations in the presidential elections of
November 2003. They boasted of having decided Bush’s
election with their support against Al Gore in 1999.
That was about the exposed electoral fraud in
Florida, organized by the Miami mafia, which in any
case had to be decided in a vote by Supreme Court
judges.
“They told me that if they made
an exception with me they would have to do the same
with everyone,” complained Lazo. “Before, you could
visit Cuba every year, once a year and even more on
humanitarian grounds. I didn’t qualify and I had to
go back to Iraq without seeing my sons. I can’t do
it now either, because three years haven’t passed
yet,” he added.
This and other legislation has
received widespread criticism in the United States
and Congress has passed amendments from both parties
on at least three occasions to no effect. But
Congress members Ros Lehtinen and the Díaz Balart
brothers have prevented them from being implemented
with the help of leaders from the Republican
majority, such as the corrupt Tom DeLay and others.
During the first days of this
legislative period – also in January – several plans
were equally presented by legislators from both
parties without altering the prohibitions
whatsoever.
Representative Hilda Solís, a
Democrat from California – expressed her wish for
the pernicious restrictions to be removed now that
the Democrats constitute a majority in the House.
“Lazo’s case is really helping
our cause,’ she added, ‘because it’s very urgent.”
Lazo arrived in the United States
in 1992 and joined the army in 2001. In November
2003, he was sent to Iraq, assigned to a mission in
Fallujah to support an operation by the Marines and
was subsequently described as a hero thanks to the
lives that he saved.
The Cuban-American soldier feels
that it is important for everyone that this policy
changes because “as it currently stands, if your
mothers dies you would not be allowed to attend the
funeral if you have visited in the last three
years.”
Last January 18, Representative
Jim McDermott said in the House that “It
is only 90 miles away from our shores, but we are
using the same sort of wrong-headed thinking
regarding Cuba that we are using in international
affairs around the world with equally dismal results.
“Today the Bush administration has
draconian travel restrictions in place for any
American trying to visit family members in Cuba. It
is their idea of promoting democracy by punishing
the people we are trying to befriend. It makes no
difference if a relative is well, sick or dying in
Cuba.
“If an American visits a relative
in Cuba and that relative is stricken by a heart
attack the day after you leave, you cannot go back
for 3 years. The administration thinks that by
cutting off families in Cuba from loved ones in the
United States, they will encourage the overthrow of
Castro. When will we ever learn? This policy plays
right into the hands of those who want to portray
the United States as an arrogant bully willing to
use innocent people as a wedge against a regime we
don't like.
“Our
policy regarding Cuba is hurting innocent people
here and there, not the government we have been
trying to overthrow for a generation. It has hurt
one of my constituents, an Iraq war hero, who came
to the United States from Cuba 15 years ago.”
McDermott said that he himself
had the honor of decorating Lazo with his medal
during a ceremony at the National Guard headquarters
in Seattle last year.
“The fact is, there are
countless stories just like Carlos. Who could
possibly be a better ambassador representing the
United States than the blood relative of someone
living in Cuba? The most
powerful statement we could ever make to the people
of Cuba is to let them interact with Americans who
are related by blood or marriage,” given that the
most powerful propaganda for the United Status would
be for Cubans to listen to a brother or sister.
“The U.S. needs to revise its travel ban to Cuba,”
he added. “As it stands now, we are separating
families. Instead, we should be reuniting loved ones.
We don't promote freedom by denying it to innocent
civilians, and we don't make new friends anywhere
when an American citizen is denied the ability to
visit a dying mother in Cuba.” Now is the time to
change.
McDermott
is no apologist for Cuba. He clarified that in his
opinion it is not necessary to “lift the embargo
against Cuba to restore family relations among
Cubans and their relatives who live in America. We
have a real opportunity to make progress promoting
democracy in Cuba, and we ought to take it. We need
to revise the U.S. travel policy to Cuba to
recognize that the American people are the best
ambassadors we could ever deploy.:
And he added:”Every
visit by an American citizen to a loved one in Cuba
will do more to promote freedom and democracy than
all the leaflets and all the broadcasts and all the
saber rattling that we have tried unsuccessfully in
the last half century. We don't need to tear down a
wall, we do need to tear up a policy and start over,
and we should do it now.”
Congress member William Delahunt
also spoke out in favor of these visits: “there is
no need to go into detail about every case of a
normal person who has been hurt by such an immoral
policy, its enough to mention the case of Carlos
Lazo. “It’s disheartening. It is a mistake that goes
against everything that American claims to stand for
on the subject,” he stated.
Ros Lehtinen and Díaz Balart
argue that the money spent in Cuba favors the
government of Fidel given that visitors return home
speaking well of the country. They are not wrong.
Because in effect, as McDermott
says, lifting the restrictions is in the best
interests of the United States. It is just not in
the interest of this trio of Batista lovers.
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