Why Can’t We All Travel To Cuba?
By Ron Paul | April 14, 2013
Earlier this month, entertainers Jay-Z and Beyoncé were given a license by the US government to travel to Cuba. Because it is not otherwise legal for Americans to travel to Cuba, this trip was only permitted as a “cultural exchange” by the US Treasury Department. Many suspect that the permission was granted at least partly due to the fame, wealth, and political connections of the couple.
Some Members of Congress who continue to support the failed Cuba embargo, demanded that the Administration explain why these two celebrities were allowed to visit Cuba. The trip looked suspiciously like tourism, they argued in a letter to the White House, and American tourism is still not allowed in Cuba. They were photographed eating at the best restaurants, dancing, and meeting with average Cubans, which these Members of Congress frowned on.
Perhaps it is true that this couple used their celebrity status and ties to the White House to secure permission to travel, but the real question is, why can’t the rest of us go?
The Obama administration has lifted some of the most onerous restrictions on travel to Cuba imposed under the previous Bush administration, but for the average American, travel to the island is still difficult if not impossible.
However, even those who are permitted to go to Cuba are not allowed to simply engage in tourist activities — to spend their money as they wish or relax on a beach.
The US government demands that the few Americans it allows to travel to Cuba only engage in what it deems “purposeful travel,” to “support civil society in Cuba; enhance the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people; and help promote their independence from Cuban authorities.” They must prove that they maintain a full-time schedule of educational activities, according to Treasury guidelines for “people-to-people” travel.
Leave it to the federal government to make the prospect of visiting that sunny Caribbean island sound so miserable.
The reason the US so severely restricts and scripts the activities of the few Americans allowed to travel to Cuba is that it believes travel must promote the goal of taking “important steps in reaching the widely shared goal of a Cuba that respects the basic rights of all its citizens.”
Although I have no illusions about the Cuban government – or any government for that matter — it is ironic that the US chose to locate a prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba because the indefinite detention and torture that took place there would have been illegal on US soil. Further, the US government continues to hold more than 100 prisoners there indefinitely even though they have not been found guilty of a crime and in fact dozens are “cleared for release” but not allowed to leave.
Does the administration really believe that the rest of the world is not annoyed by its “do as we say, not as we do” attitude?
We are told by supporters of the Cuba embargo and travel ban that we must take such measures to fight the communists in charge of that country. Americans must be prohibited from traveling to Cuba, they argue, because tourist dollars would only be used to prop up the unelected Castro regime. Ironically, our restrictive travel policies toward Cuba actually mirror the travel policies of the communist countries past and present. Under communist rule in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere it was only the well-connected elites who were allowed to travel overseas – people like Jay-Z and Beyoncé. The average citizen was not permitted the right.
Although the current administration’s slight loosening of the restrictions is a small step in the right direction, it makes no sense to continue this nearly half-century old failed policy. Freedom to travel is a fundamental right. Restricting this fundamental right in the name of human rights is foolish and hypocritical.
Related article
No comments yet.
Featured Video
The World Sees What the US is Trying to do to Iran
or go to
Aletho News Archives – Video-Images
From the Archives
“Jewish Power” Exists — Genocidally — in Israel
BY KEVIN BARRETT • UNZ REVIEW • NOVEMBER 28, 2022
Dave Chappelle recently joked that there are “two words in the English language that you should never say together in sequence. And those words are ‘the’ and ‘Jews.’”
But that isn’t the only banned two-word sequence. Another is “Jewish power.” As the Israeli-born musician-philosopher Gilad Atzmon says, “Jewish power is the power to suppress discussion on Jewish power.” So when Kanye West tried to talk about Jewish power, powerful Jews united to destroy him—as if that would somehow prove that Jewish power doesn’t exist.
Jewish power in North America and Europe mainly stems from the disproportionate presence of Jews in powerful positions in media, politics, and finance—a phenomenon best explained by such traditional Jewish values as education, ambition, and ethnic nepotism.* But nobody is allowed to mention nepotism. As Chappelle said, “If they’re black it’s a gang. If they’re Italian it’s a mob. If they’re Jewish it’s a coincidence and you should neeever speak about it.”
But there is one place where Jewish Power is openly discussed… continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- This Is the Reality…
- Iran announces discovery of major gas field in southern Fars province
- Ukraine’s External State Debt Explodes 24-Fold Since West-Fomented Euromaidan
- The World Sees What the US is Trying to do to Iran /Matt Bracken & Lt Col Daniel Davis
- The 12 Symptoms Your Body Uses to Save Your Life
- FDA Acting Commissioner Woodcock Admits Adverse Events After COVID-19 Vaccination
- China will not play along with the US’ ‘reckless games’ on the Iran issue
- ICE arrested the ‘worst of the worst.’ Washington made sure he walked free
- Israel’s New War in Syria: Why Türkiye Is Now in the Crosshairs
- Beware of Yoram Hazony’s Attempts to Subvert Nationalism
- If Americans Knew
- Van Jones Ripped for ‘Absolutely Sickening’ Remarks About Gaza Baby Starved by Israel
- Israeli settler violence is growing more and more barbaric – Daily Update
- West Bank: Israeli military execute Palestinian; settlers kill another – Daily Update
- Israeli Media: The IDF’s Gaza Investigations Aren’t Professionalism – They’re Political Theater (MSF agrees)
- BBC cancelled interview on Israel’s killing of Hind Rajab
- Israel’s brutal blockade puts 94% of Gazans in need of shelter – Daily Update
- Tucker Carlson says Israel pushed him to report false allegations against Hunter Biden
- Flashback: Israel killed Israelis, confirms 7 October documentary
- Has Trump turned the tables on Iran – or is another round of war coming?
- The day Israel murdered World Central Kitchen staff
- No Tricks Zone
- 2026 Atlantic Cyclone Energy Index Running At 85% Below Normal!
- New Research Shows Soil Respiration And Temperature Drive CO2 Change, Not Humans
- Comparison Of Two German Weather Forecasts: From 25 Years Ago And From Today
- Veteran Swiss Meteorologist On Germany’s Recent Heat Wave: “You’re A Really Crazy Country”
- New Research Documents The Lack Of Any Net Decline In GBR Coral Cover Since The 1980s
- New Study Details Massive Recent Sea Ice Expansion And Cooling In The Greenland Sea
- Germany Also Saw Extreme Drought Conditions In The 1940s…Worse Than Today
- Another New Study Links Modern And Past Global Warming To Natural Changes In Cloud Cover, Not CO2
- Uncertainty In Estimating Solar Forcing Across The Arctic Is 100-350x Larger Than CO2’s Alleged Climate Impact
- Farce Of The Week: Germany’s Weather Site Donnerwetter.de Attempts To Measure The Rhine River’s Temperature!
Aletho News 
Leave a comment