Americans are travelling to Cuba in dramatically fewer numbers and at the same time United States fines against those who come without permission are on the rise, the Cuban government said as it launched its annual international campaign against the decades-old US embargo.
Vice Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla lamented the effects of the embargo, which has been steadily strengthened under US President George Bush and prohibits virtually all trade between the two countries except for the sale to Cuba of some US food and medicine.
”We are talking about an economic war against our country,” Rodriguez said.
”It is unfounded, unfair and, moreover, deeply illegal.”
Cuba says it has lost $82-billion in trade since the first US sanctions were imposed in 1960, a year after the Cuban revolution thrust Fidel Castro into power.
The embargo also punishes third-country nations for doing business with the island. Authorities say the elimination of all sanctions would lead to 100 000 new jobs and increased revenues of $6-billion per year for the island.
As for travellers coming from the United States, Rodriguez said visits to the island by Cuban-Americans are down by almost 50%, with 40% fewer other Americans coming.
A Cuban report released ahead of an upcoming vote on the embargo at the United Nations said 57 145 Cuban-Americans returned to visit their native country last year compared with 115 050 in 2003.
For other American tourists, the number went from 85 809 in 2003 to 51 027 last year.
The numbers have continued to decrease in 2005, the report says.
At the same time, those who defy US travel restrictions are more likely to be fined under Bush’s government, according to the report.
In the first quarter of 2005, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control fined 307 Americans for unauthorised travel to Cuba — almost as many as the 316 people fined all of last year, the report said.
US officials defend the embargo, saying unfettered trade and travel to the island would prop up Castro’s communist government.
The imprisonment of dissidents and restrictions on economic and political freedoms are also used to justify the policy, aimed at forcing a change in Cuba’s leadership.
Critics, however, say the embargo is outdated and hasn’t worked — Castro remains in power and the nation is still communist. They also note that the United States trades with other communist countries, such as China and Vietnam, and that the policy hurts average Cubans more than Castro.
Democrats and free-trade Republicans in the US Congress for years have pushed for easing the sanctions but have yet to make headway against an administration determined to keep up the pressure. Anti-Castro Cuban-Americans, concentrated in Florida, have been strong supporters of Bush and the Republican Party.
If more Americans knew how much hardship the embargo caused Cubans in their daily life, they would surely demand its end, Rodriguez said.
”Americans can be continually deceived, and manipulated, but eventually they arrive at the truth and they act,” he said.
The United Nations General Assembly condemned the embargo, urging the US to end the policy for the 13th straight year in a vote last fall. Last year’s UN resolution calling for the embargo to be repealed was approved by a vote of 179-4, with only the United States, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau opposed.
Leading up to this year’s UN vote, Rodriguez presented an extensive document on Tuesday outlining the damage Cuba says the embargo has caused to the country’s economy, foreign trade, and health, education and cultural sectors.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque was scheduled to launch Tuesday’s campaign himself but had to attend to other business, officials said. – Sapa-AP