Roberto Jorquera
"I must be calm but very sincere. I have absolutely no intention of insulting you or launching personal attacks. But it is cynical to include Cuba in a list of countries involved in the illegal trafficking of persons. And what is even more outrageous and abhorrent in this arrogant report that the State Department feels obliged to issue every year is the claim that Cuba promotes sex tourism, even with children", Cuban President Fidel Castro wrote to US President George Bush on June 21.
Castro was referring to accusations contained in the US State department's annual "trafficking in persons" report. They come on the back of Washington tightening restrictions on Cuban-Americans' travel to Cuba, further restricting the amount of money that could be sent to the island, and restricting the amount of money that US citizens are allowed to spend whilst visiting Cuba.
The recent restrictions have angered many in the US who feel that the government has gone too far. The New York Times noted in its June 21 editorial that, "It is outrageous that the people of a communist nation have just been told they can only see their relatives living outside the country only once every three years.
"Despite the fact that the policy implemented for decades by various US administrations to force political change in Cuba has been an all-around failure, the current administration is embracing it with renewed gusto", added the editorial, which also noted that, ' the toughened policy, which cynically victimizes families, will backfire over time". The paper cited surveys that showed more than half of Cuban-Americans in Florida oppose the recent restrictions.
The National Council of Churches in the United States has also condemned the changes. Reverend Robert Edgard, general secretary of the council stated in a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell, "this action against the island will only strengthen the policies that have failed for over forty years".
The Cuban government has responded by making clear its solidarity with the people in the US. "Cuba is willing to save the lives of 3000 poor people in the United States in a brief period of five years", announced Castro in his June 21, message to Bush, which was read out to a rally of more than 200,000 Cubans.
"Those 3000 people from the United States could come to Cuba with an accompanying relative and receive medical treatment absolutely free", Castro added. Cuba's medical facilities are among the best in the world.
"Would you be willing to concede permission to those citizens to travel to Cuba for a program aimed at saving one life for each of those lost during the atrocious attack on the Twin Towers?" he asked Bush. And, he asked, if people accepted the offer and decided to come, would they be punished?
Castro concluded, "Your measures against the Cuban people are an atrocious and inhumane act. Cuba can prove that you want to destroy a country whose medical services have saved and continue to save hundreds of thousands of lives in poor countries of the world.
"You surely know that 44 million people in the United States lack medical insurance and that at some point in a two-year period, 82 million Americans had no insurance and could not afford the astronomical costs of essential health care services in your country. A very conservative estimate indicates that many tens of thousands of lives are lost every year in the United States because of this, perhaps thirty or forty times the number that died in the Twin Towers ... show the world that there is an alternative to arrogance, war, genocide, hatred, egoism, hypocrisy and lies!"
From Green Left Weekly, July 7, 2004.
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