[NYTr] La Alborada: Destroying the family for its own good

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Jane Franklin

As this editorial from La Alborada points out, Congress could change
these regulations long before the next president takes office in
January 2009. Siempre,
Jane Franklin
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jbfranklins


La Alborada - Aug 22, 2007

Editorial

Destroying the family for its own good

We saw today a request for help concerning family travel to Cuba.  A
mother who lives there is seriously ill with cancer.  Her adult
daughter in the US has been given 16 days to visit the ailing mother.
After that, she has to return or be held in violation of the law.  She
will not be able to return for another three years.

This is not an unusual case.  It has been posed repeatedly, with varied
but similar factual circumstances, to US officials, who have responded, 
essentially, "Too bad. It's your fault for not overthrowing the
government." The current rules do not contemplate exceptions for
humanitarian reasons.

Certain realities must be clear to anyone: There are many people in the
US with family in Cuba.  There are bound to be, again and again,
circumstances of serious illness or impending death for a relative in
Cuba.  Family members living in the US find an emotional, familial,
social, and moral need to be at the side of the ill person in Cuba,
especially as it may be the last opportunity to see that relative and
to say goodbye.

Under the rules, promulgated supposedly for the good of the Cubans and
their families in the US, none of this matters.  Families are expected
to plan for life-threatening illnesses to coincide with the alloted
travel period once every three years, and not for any longer or any
more frequently.

What is more, the family as defined by the rules does not include
cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces, or nephews. Those relatives ceased to
be considered family in 2004.  Even less will the US consider affective
relations such as with an elderly guardian who brought up a child now
living as an adult in the US.

The commission to annex Cuba, named by President Bush and co-chaired by 
Condoleezza Rice and Carlos Gutierrez, came up with these rules with
the firm support of anti-Castro Cuban-Americans.  On purpose, they
chose to use the Cuban family as leverage--as provisional hostages--in
an attempt to pressure Cubans, and their families in the US, to
overthrow the Cuban government.

It's hard to conceive of such cynical manipulation being codified into 
official regulations, published for the world to see and learn from. We
do not know of any other country to which such anti-family rules
apply.  Even at the height of the Cold War against the so-called Evil
Empire, family visits to the USSR were not so limited.  Even for
countries of Bush's Axis of Evil, such rules do not apply.

The US proponents of the rule are the same folks who advertise
themselves as the family-values politicians.  As for the Cuban-born
politicians and operators who pressed for or suport these abominable
provisions, the best we can say is that they no longer have any family
or friends in Cuba and do not care about anyone else's.  Their argument
that this is the way to improve the lives of Cubans is not convincing.

The White House and its ministers promulgated the rules, but Congress 
accepted them.  Congress could change them, but so far it has refused
to do so.  We see no reason why it has not, other than the political
and financial support the Senators and Representatives receive from
professional anti-Castro activists, especially in Florida, where
pandering on the right for the Cuban swing vote is always in style.

The family-travel restrictions are the worst of a long list of bad
rules governing US policy towards Cuba.  It's time that Congress acted
more convincingly in line with the principles its members claim to
spouse.