Breaking the Law to Do Good

Chanting slogans while garbed in bright orange T-shirts, 140 members of the Venceremos Brigade crossed from Canada into the United States on Monday after an illegal three-week trip to Cuba. Meanwhile, 130 members of the US/Cuba Friendship Caravan reentered the United States across the Hidalgo International Bridge at Reynosa, Mexico. Their mutual mission? To challenge the age-old ban restricting Americans from traveling to Cuba.

For the Venceremos (We Shall Overcome) Brigade, the crossing marks its 40th anniversary journey, a tradition that began in 1969, when members traveled to the island in its first show of solidarity. Each year, "Brigadistas" return to Cuba, volunteering their time to help cut cane or assist in community projects. Meanwhile, the US/Cuba Friendship Caravan, organized annually by Pastors for Peace, runs charity shipments of donated computers, bicycles and clothing to Cuba, delivering them to hospitals and other groups in need.

But these organizations must break the law in order to do good.

The travel ban remains the frontispiece of a trade embargo that the US has levied against the island nation for the past 48 years. The meltdown in relations began in 1960 when Fidel Castro nationalized US-owned oil refineries and President Eisenhower, in a retaliatory measure, suspended sugar imports to the United States. While some humanitarian parts of the embargo were amended in 2002, allowing food and medicine sales to Cuba by American companies, the travel restrictions stick. In a July 13 open letter to President Obama, the Venceremos Brigade stated, "We urge you to support lifting the travel restrictions for all US citizens and residents, and take serious steps towards ending the economic embargo on Cuba."

Over the past decade, the Cuban government has cut sugar production sharply, shifting the island's economy  toward complete dependency on tourism. And even amidst a worldwide recession, Cuba boasted receiving a record 2.34 million visitors in 2008, generating upwards of $2.5 billion in GDP. Yet despite these numbers, average Cubans are suffering escalating shortages daily, reminiscent of 1992-1998 when the island experienced one of the worst economic disasters in the Americas. Known as the "Periodo Especial", at its 1994 peak, Cubans endured 12-hour rolling blackouts and worked for monthly wages equaling $1 in real value. While things aren't nearly as desperate today, Cubans are feeling the exponential pinch.

Should the travel ban be lifted, some estimate Cuba's tourist income would double in the first year. In preparation for this inevitability, Cuba has been building the infrastructure to handle the largest potential influx of US travelers since 1988. However, threatened with $7,000 fines, only 40,000 Americans traveled to Cuba annually over the past few years, the bulk going illegally. This year, the Venceremos Brigade and the US/Cuba Friendship Caravan accounted for 270 of those. In 1999, Bill Clinton began giving special permission to church groups, students and humanitarians to engage in what he called "people-to-people exchanges" with Cuba. The good news is that with continuous media coverage drawn to the issue we can only expect the Obama administration to follow the same positive course.

For more on this issue, see Corbett's Tonic blog, "Testing the Cuban Trail."

(Photos: Top, coincidentally titled "Venceremos" by Ben Corbett. Bottom, "Cuba Mania," by Ben Corbett)