Vacation Travel to Cuba: How it shores up a totalitarian dictatorship

“Tourism only fuels the [Castro] regime's repressive machinery.” - Sirley Ávila León

Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet and Ambassador James Cason

 Today at the University of Miami the words of Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet on the current reality in Cuba and its parallels with the Apartheid regime led to a new reflection on tourism to the island.  In the past have written on the fact that the Cuba is a totalitarian dictatorship and visiting it will not lead to a better understanding of the island, but often just the opposite being turned into an agent of influence for the Castro regime. This has happened before to travelers who visited the Soviet Union during Stalin's mass killings and manufactured famines, or Nazi Germany in the midst of Hitler's holocaust. In both cases travelers returned praising the dictatorships and proclaiming that "they worked" and were the future.

Dr. Biscet today at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies explained that freedom to travel in Cuba remains non-existent and all travel is controlled by the Castro dictatorship.  Furthermore as was the case in South Africa during the Apartheid regime Cubans must show identification to travel between provinces, and report to the Committee in Defense of the Revolution if they wish to stay at the home of a friends or family member when traveling in the island.

Ana Margarita Perdigón Brito denied entry to her homeland to see ailing mother

The reality that Cubans do not have the right to enter and exit their homeland was also demonstrated today with Ana Margarita Perdigón Brito. She was born in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba and immigrated to the United States in March of 2012. Ana Margarita was forced to return at 10:00am this morning after having arrived yesterday at 2:00pm at José Martí International Airport. She had traveled to Cuba to see her mother who is ill and may soon die.

Ana Margarita shows cuts from broken glass during scuffle at airport (CubaNet)

The independent news platform CubaNet reported that Ana Margarita Perdigón Brito was an independent journalist who had worked with various independent publications, including CubaNet among them. CubaNet reached her brother, Pablo Perdigón who had gone to pick up his sister only to find as he informed the reporter: "A colonel from the airport told me that she is turned around, that I could not see her. I had to return to Sancti Spiritus, because we rented a car to go get her." Her brother added that the soldier who met with him told him "some glass was broken and she was injured." This was the second time she had tried to travel to Cuba, the first being in March of 2015 when she and her daughter were taken off the plane while it was still in Miami and told that she was not permitted to enter. However her Cuban passport remained valid and she thought she could try again at a future date. Yesterday she learned that was not the case and spent the night detained on the airport in Havana and was sent back to Miami today.

This is not the first time that a daughter born in Cuba is unable to return to see a dying parent. In the summer of 2013 Blanca Reyes, a Cuban national living in Spain was denied permission to see her dying father. Her dad died on October 15, 2013 and the grieving daughter tweeted: "My father died today in Cuba did not see him for 9 years the Cuban government stopped me. UNTIL WHEN MY GOD?"  Three years later and the question continues to resonate. Both Ana Margarita Perdigón Brito and Blanca Reyes were nonviolent civil society activists who respectively practiced journalism and defended human rights as a Lady in White. There is no reason that they should not be able to enter and exit their homeland, especially when a loved one is ill or dying.

However, some of the Cuban Americans that have been granted entry to Cuba ended their visits tragically.

• Young Cuban American Víctor Barroso lost an arm on November 18, 2012 and spent 28 months falsely imprisoned following a car crash in Cuba. He went to Cuba to visit family and is now trying to raise funds for a prosthetic arm. 
• On November 22, 2013 Brandon Bjorn Ross, a 31 year old American citizen visiting Cuba with his mother Onelia Ross, who is of Cuban origin, went out to take pictures in the early morning around the Hotel Nacional in Havana. The next time his mom saw him was at the morgue to identify her son's body. Government officials said that he had fallen from the roof of the hotel, but refused to provide Onelia an autopsy report and quickly cremated her son's body without her authorization. 
• Alberto Romero (age 39), a Tampa based marital and family law attorney, was murdered in Cuba while visiting extended family on January 8, 2015. He was found tied up with a family friend, beaten, stabbed multiple times and with one hand severed.

There have been other cases involving non-Cubans over the years, but the fact that speaking the language and having family there does not guarantee a safe stay should speak volumes to prospective visitors.

Cuba remains an island under the brutal grip of a totalitarian dictatorship with an economy run by the military and the Castro family. This also means that tourism dollars go straight into shoring up the dictatorship's Ministry of the Interior and the Military. There is no due process and the legal system is subject to the arbitrary whims of the dictatorship. Reporting on outbreaks of disease are also subject to the whims of the dictatorship. Independent media are persecuted and outlawed and independent reporting on crime is incomplete and accurate information hard to come by.

Daisy B. Peñaloza, a preschool teacher residing in Bakersfield, California on June 28, 2016 wrote "Thinking about a vacation in Cuba? Don't" in The Bakersfield Californian that summed it up best:

Obama’s rapprochement has not empowered Cuban society. Every dollar that tourists spend in Cuba exclusively strengthens and enriches the billionaire Castro family and literally hurts the Cuban people. Worse yet, as in Nazi Germany, tourists unwittingly become tools of the regime. Communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union was toppled, not by tourism and commerce, but by economic ruin, a globally sustained dissident movement and persistent sanctions.

However she did allow that principled travel to the island could serve a positive purpose.

A humanitarian or religious visit, whereby the seeds of free expression are scattered and left to germinate, is the type of visit that will make a true and lasting difference in the lives of Cubans.

It is important to remember that Cubans do not have the freedom to travel in their own homeland and as Dr. Biscet observed are subjected to an internal pass system reminiscent of the South African apartheid regime. Visiting Cuba for sun and fun while Cubans are being discriminated against in their own country while tourism dollars go to perpetuate their repression is immoral.

Cuban woman not allowed to return home to visit her ailing 93 year old father

Blanca Reyes: Denied entry to Cuba to visit her ailing dad

 Over twitter yesterday learned that the Consulate General of Cuba in Madrid (Spain), refused the representative of the Ladies in White in Europe, Blanca Reyes, an entry permit to her homeland that she had requested on July 22, 2013 to see her father who is 93 years old and very ill and lives in the Cuban city of Sancti Spiritus. In an article published by ACI press Blanca said:

"My father is 93 years old and is very sick. I wanted to see him before he died," She said her father told her over the phone "that he wanted to touch me before he died, but now they will not let me go."  

According to ACI Press "the consulate official told her on Tuesday that permission had been 'denied'."

Cuban nationals are required to appear before a consulate and apply for permission to return to their own country even if they have a valid passport.

 Between 70,000 and 300,000 Cubans are banned from returning to their homeland under arbitrary criteria set up by the dictatorship. Now regime apologists such as John McAuliff of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development claim that "Cuba now provides greater freedom of travel to virtually all of its citizens than does the U.S."  

Human Rights Watch in their 2013 report document that Cuban citizens still face numerous restrictions traveling not only internationally but in Cuba itself:

Reforms to travel regulations that went into effect in January 2013 eliminate the need for an exit visa to leave the island, which had previously been used to deny the right to travel to people critical of the government and their families. However, the reform establishes that the government may restrict the right to travel on the vague grounds of “defense and national security” or “other reasons of public interest,” which could allow authorities to continue to deny people who express dissent the ability to leave Cuba.
The government restricts the movement of citizens within Cuba by enforcing a 1997 law known as Decree 217. Designed to limit migration to Havana, the decree requires Cubans to obtain government permission before moving to the country's capital. It is often used to prevent dissidents traveling to Havana to attend meetings and to harass dissidents from other parts of Cuba who live in the capital.

In December of 2011 rumors circulated that Cubans travel rules would be loosened, but it was not until January of 2013 that dissidents long barred from traveling were able to once again travel out of the country. There is no right to travel for Cubans. New rules were set up but in a country with no rule of law the arbitrary nature of the dictatorship remains as is demonstrated in the case of Blanca Reyes who is being denied the right to return home to visit her ailing father.

The Christian Liberation Movement launched a petition drive known as the Heredia Project and have gathered thousands of signatures calling on the regime to recognize the right to travel of Cubans and to demand real not fake change. In the meantime despite all the propaganda and press the regime with its diktats keeps Cuban families divided and in Blanca's case a daughter from seeing her dying father.

Its just new rules for the same old and cruel game of fraudulent change.

New rules for the same old game

"Calculate that by the 1st week of February I will have my passport be able to travel... fingers crossed. I'll believe it when I am in the plane!" - Yoani Sanchez, over twitter today.

AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa

In October of 2012 the regime in Cuba announced migration reforms that would take effect today January 14, 2013. Cubans on the island are going through the motions, but many are as skeptical as Yoani Sanchez on whether they will be able to travel. Not so, John McAuliff of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development, who lobbies for engagement between the United States government and the dictatorship in Cuba and was quoted today in an article by the Associated Press saying that "Cuba now provides greater freedom of travel to virtually all of its citizens than does the U.S."  

With all due respect to Mr. McAuliff but the above statement is not borne out by the facts and would earn him the laughter of many Cubans. For example, Rosa María Payá  was not allowed by the Cuban government to travel to Santiago, Chile between January 8 through the 15th. Its not only the Cubans that contradict his claim.

CNN on January 11, 2012 reported the following:

After weeks in which passport applications surged and just days before the new policy takes affect, Cuba this week "began to increase the information about the update announced last October," according to a story from the state-run Prensa Latina News Agency. Cuba faces holiday travel crisis Specifically, the Labor and Social Security Ministry defined categories of Cubans whose travel would be restricted. They include those who may be "criminally prosecuted, are subject to military service or (are denied) for reasons of defense and national security." "Also on the list are citizens who have obligations with the state or are not authorized under rules designed to preserve the skilled workforce and protect official information," read the Presna Latina story.

The United States government does not restrict doctors and athletes from traveling outside of the country. It also does not restrict between 70,000 and 300,000 US citizens from returning to their homeland. The Castro regime does engage in these practices. To claim that the Cuban dictatorship offers greater freedom to travel than the United States is a falsehood that is absurd.

This is not the first time that the press and "Cuba experts" have jumped on a Castro regime announcement while ignoring news that contradicts their optimistic assessment.

For example On August 8, 2012 BBC News reported that Cuba's ban on anti-Castro musicians had been quietly lifted. Others soon followed reporting on the news. The stories specifically mentioned Celia Cruz as one of the artists whose music would return to Cuban radio.

 Diario de Cuba reported on August 21, 2012 that Tony Pinelli, a well known musician and radio producer, distributed an e-mail in which Rolando Álvarez, the national director of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión (ICRT) confirmed that the music of the late Celia Cruz would continue to be banned. The e-mail clearly stated: "All those who had allied with the enemy, who acted against our families, like Celia Cruz, who went to sing at the Guantanamo Base, the ICRT arrogated to itself the right, quite properly, not to disseminate them on Cuban radio."

Whether it is the issue of censorship or freedom to travel the regime in Cuba has made lots of noise but the underlying policies of control and repression remain intact.  Meanwhile things are getting worse.

Opposition leaders are dying under suspicious circumstances and the overall human rights situation in Cuba is deteriorating.  The dictatorship is remaining silent about Cholera outbreaks across the island. Its behavior is that of a classic totalitarian regime. The changes carried out by the Cuban dictatorship are new rules for the same old game: hanging on to power.

Raul Castro's bait and switch

"Raul Castro authorizes exits from small jails but still does not announce exits from the big jail." - Yoani Sanchez, on Raul Castro's announcement tonight

Expectations that the long hated travel restrictions placed on Cubans by the dictatorship would be lifted were heightened today. Deutsche Press-Agentur reported that "Rumours were rife Friday that Cuban President Raul Castro might lift travel restrictions and allow people to go in and out of the country more freely." Reuters reported that Cuba was "abuzz with speculation that President Raul Castro will soon announce policy changes making it easier for Cubans to travel abroad from their communist island." AFP journalist and photographer Alex Ogle tweeted at 7:30am EST today: "Keep eye out today for Cuba to lift a 50-year travel ban for its citizens > expected announcement will be historic."

Raul Castro poured cold water on the expected announcement reported the Associated Press claiming that Cubans exercising their right to enter an exit their homeland could effect the stability of the regime: “Some have been pressuring us to take the step … as if we were talking about something insignificant, and not the destiny of the revolution.” Over the years the rumors that the travel restrictions placed on Cubans by the dictatorship would be lifted has circulated. Rumors that Cuban regime is about to lift travel restrictions are as reliable as the rumors that Fidel Castro has died.

Instead the big announcement is that over 2,900 prisoners are to be released. International news agencies almost immediately report that Cuban officials have announced that Alan Gross is not among the 2900 to be released. According to Elsa Morejon, Raul Castro announced that 2988 prisoners are to be released. 13 of them are women. 88 are foreigners from 25 countries. Former prisoner of conscience Angel Moya tweeted that nothing would be resolved with the release of the prisoners because Cuba wants freedom. The online publication Convivencia (Coexistence) tweeted that they were gladdened that nearly 3,000 prisoners would be released to mark 4OO years of the Virgin of Charity in Cuba and the Pope's visit to the island next year.

Yoani Sanchez placed the releases in the larger context of migration reform in a tweet: "Raul Castro authorizes exits from small jails but still does not announce exits from the big jail."

Defending a Fundamental Right: the Freedom to Return to Your Homeland

Article 13.
• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
• (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights


International treaties recognize the freedom to leave any country and to return to your homeland as a fundamental right, but regime’s like those operating in Burma and Cuba see this “right” as a “privilege” to be granted or withheld depending on the whims of the ruling junta.

Yoani Sanchez

For example, on nine occasions over the past three years Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez has been denied permission to travel outside of Cuba to attend a conference and return home.

Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina

In March of 2010 Cuban opposition activist Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina was denied permission to attend a human rights conference in Switzerland to which he had been invited to attend as a speaker. Juan Juan Almeida had to engage in a prolonged hunger strike to be able to travel outside of Cuba to obtain much needed medical treatment. Cuban prisoners of conscience released into forced exile are denied the right of return to their country. These are but just four examples of a systematic pattern where Cubans are denied the right to leave Cuba and to later return to their homeland.



This practice angers many and the dictatorship cannot respond with a convincing argument. In 2008 Ricardo Alarcon attempted to explain why Cubans are not free to travel like other peoples from around the world only to draw ridicule.

In addition to not being able to travel freely outside of Cuba, Cubans are also subjected to restrictions from traveling and residing in different parts of Cuba itself.

Both types of restrictions are in violation of Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reproduced at the top of the page of which Cuba is a signatory.

Jose Maria Heredia

Cuban opposition leader Oswaldo Paya Sardiñas has launched a petition drive to obtain passage of the National Reunion Project Heredia Bill named in honor of Jose Maria Heredia, poet and Cuban patriot exiled from Cuba during the Spanish colonial period. It is described as a campaign for the right of Cubans to travel freely and for the elimination of humiliating discrimination against Cubans in their own country.

Oswaldo Paya Sardiñas

This trampling of the fundamental right to travel has not just been carried out against Cubans but in the past against East Germans trying to cross into West Germany and more recently with the sad plight of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma (Myanmar). Fearing that she would not be allowed to return home to Burma Suu Kyi was unable to visit her husband as he died from cancer or see her children. In addition the military junta would not allow her husband into the country to visit his wife nor even today allow her children to visit their mother.

Aung San Suu Kyi and her late husband, Michael Aris

Other regimes today such as the People’s Republic of China and North Korea also ignore this fundamental right of its citizenry. In the case of communist China the wife and relatives of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo are barred from traveling to Oslo to accept the award on the Chinese dissident's behalf. In the case of North Korea "illegally exiting" the country can lead to execution.

Exposing this trampling of fundamental human rights and campaigns to address this injustice is a small step to take in solidarity with people denied this basic right.