Obama has the power to allow Americans to travel to Cuba
By Gerardo Arreola
From the Mexican newspaper La Jornada
HAVANA – Cubans living in the United States visited their country of origin in 2009 as never before in half a century and this year will do so even more.
Meanwhile, an increase in travel by Americans to Cuba was in the hands of the president Barack Obama, in the absence of a Congressional decision, sources that follow the process closely said.
Last year, 202,000 Cubans came from the United States, said Armando Garcia, president of Miami-based Marazul, a chartered-flight provider. Until Sept. 30 of last year, 239,000 Cubans from the U.S. arrived on the island, and the projection is 300,000 to 310,000 by the end of 2010, the executive added. About 50 direct flights link the two countries every week.
When those results are compared with the reports of Cuba’s National Statistics Office (ONE), Cubans living in the United States last year accounted for 8.31 per cent of the foreign visitors and 12.55 percent in the first nine months of 2010.
By contrast, the choice of a law allowing the Americans to come to the island has virtually disappeared. “It is almost impossible to imagine that it will be approved in both chambers and sent to the president for signature” by the end of 2010, but Obama can still make an executive decision in this direction, said Phil Peters, vice president of the Lexington Institute, an independent think tank, and advisor to the Cuba Working Committee on Capitol Hill.
Francisco G. Aruca, president of the Marazul council and a Miami radio commentator, said that after the Nov. 2 elections, Obama can expand travel, as Bill Clinton did with his people-to-people plan. “It would be wise to do so and at little immediate cost,” Aruca said.
The liberalization of travel by Americans would be critical to relieve Washington’s economic blockade against the island, because it would put on the table the urgency of definitions and issues such as scheduled flights, yacht travel, acceptance of checks and credit cards, cellular telephony, and the purchase of goods and services on the island, among others.
Last month, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez suggested that, without awaiting action by Congress, Obama should use his presidential privileges to make exceptions to the embargo, such as enabling the use of the dollar, the use of cards and checks from U.S. banks, the purchase of drugs produced in Cuba and freedom of travel for Americans. The president has “sufficient prerogatives” and popular consensus to act in this manner, the minister added.
In April 2009, Obama lifted limitations on family remittances and travel to Cuba by Cubans residing in the United States, thus dismantling the prohibitions that had been hardened by his predecessor, George W. Bush. But at the same time, he kept for his fellow citizens the ban on travel to Cuba.
The legislative path to free the travel of Americans was opened by H.R.-4645, a bill by the Agriculture Committee chairman of the House of Representatives, Democrat Collin Peterson, and 32 of his colleagues. The initiative also provides facilities for the payment of agricultural purchases made by the island from U.S. firms, under legislation passed 10 years ago.
The bill went through the legislative process this year, but in late September, the Democrat Howard Berman, a longtime supporter of freedom of travel to the island, postponed a final discussion in the House panel he chairs – the Foreign Affairs Committee – hoping for a better time for “the strong and ongoing debate this important issue deserves.”
But Congress went into recess and the lawmakers now face the final campaign for the November elections, said Peters. At least 180 representatives and more than 40 senators had signed the initiative as co-sponsors. Supporters and opponents of the project seemed optimistic about a vote, “but what counts now is the calendar, and the calendar certainly favors the opponents,” the analyst added.
The U.S. Congress will work for two weeks in December and the bill could pass the Foreign Committee, but “in such a short time it’s almost impossible to imagine that it will approved in both chambers and sent to the president for his signature” this year, Peters said.
While similar bills have been introduced before, Peterson’s bill gained unprecedented political and social support inside and outside the Capitol. Its backers included retired military officers, human rights groups, agricultural exporters, the tourism industry, NGOs and academics.
Obama offered to respond to “positive changes” in Cuba, recalled Peters. “Now we see the release of political prisoners and major economic reforms. If there’s no response to these steps, the president’s words would be meaningless. That’s why I think we will see an executive action, perhaps a liberalization of regulations to expand non-tourist travel, after the elections. “
Aruca speculated that Berman postponed the debate by one vote. A plenary vote before January, when the new Congress take office, would have to decided by the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. “I do not know if she will do it, and if so I have serious doubts that it will be approved. With all the money raised against the law, money that will continue to circulate after the election, I think it will be difficult,” Aruca said.
To this are added the forecasts that favor Republicans. For that reason, Obama and the Democrats in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs are avoiding statements “that may seem controversial” before the election, concluded Aruca.
The current flow of Cubans traveling to the island from the U.S. in one year has no precedent since the mid-1960s. In 2009, they were the second-largest group of visitors to the island, behind the Canadians (914,884, according to ONE).
ONE does not report the travelers from the United States, but in its 2009 report the classification “others” contained 584,103, equivalent to 41.2 percent of the total.
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/10/23/index.php?section=mundo&article=025r1mun
