Since the latest attack on US- Cuba travel, there has been a flood responses pointing out that the policy doesn’t make sense because it will actually harm the very people the administration purports to support: the Cuban people. These new regulations eliminate the Group People-to-People Educational Travel from the list of U.S. Government-approved categories under which U.S. travelers are permitted to travel to Cuba. Travel by cruise ship or private vessel is also banned. The stated goal is to put economic pressure on the Cuban government, while the most likely result is a stifled emerging non-state sector and a greater role for the Cuban government as it prepares for the impending economic blow.
Seen a different way, however, it makes perfect sense. The emerging non-state sector has done a great deal toward increasing the appeal of Cuba as a travel destination while providing opportunities for Cubans to earn a better living in the vibrant and growing culinary, cultural and arts enterprises (among other, less visible opportunities). This challenges the myth of an oppressed, destitute, miserable people, suffering under a dictatorial regime. Public opinion on Cuba is increasingly shifting toward tolerance and normalization. It is clear, then,that the goal is not to “support the Cuban people” but to sustain a narrative useful to the United States’ political and economic ambitions. Cuba is a symbolic justification for US interventionism in the hemisphere, and these policies are consistent with the ideology that anyone who will not serve US interests must be crushed.
Not everyone will have the love for Cuba that I have. I respect that. Nonetheless, I urge you to reject ANY policy that aims to keep us ignorant (such as restricting our ability to see and judge for ourselves). As a democratic people it is not just our right, but our obligation to educate ourselves about the motivations, contexts, and consequences of policies enacted in our name.
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