Travel games

President Bush's crackdown on U.S. tourism to Cuba undermines our standing as a free society in an attempt to court the conservative Cuban-American vote.

President Bush played into Fidel Castro's hands last week with his political gaming over Cuba. Before a hand-picked group of Castro opponents, the president announced, in a Rose Garden ceremony, a crackdown on Americans traveling to Cuba. He said the U.S. would expand propaganda to the island, and announced the formation of a committee "to plan for Cuba's transition" to democracy once the communist government is gone. It was a picture the Cuban dictator would have loved to make - an American president restricting the movement of his own people in the name of fostering liberty, and plotting the future of a sovereign state.

Presidents have long used Castro as a cash-machine prop to milk the conservative Cuban-American community, but last week's move, however aimed to help Bush win re-election, could damage America's long-term interests. Beyond the inalienable right U.S. citizens have to freely travel across the globe - we are not at war with Cuba - there is no better way to promote American values than to show the benefits of freedom firsthand. That's what American travelers bring to Cuba, and restricting those visits undermines our standing as a model of free society.

There is nothing wrong with expanding U.S.-financed broadcasts of news and culture, but Bush has used this confidence-building tactic as a club. American broadcasts add to the diversity of views, but nothing beats direct contact between citizens across a broad range of society. This - not a contest over signal-jamming - is the arena in which to challenge Cuba. Let Castro put his human rights record, domestic failures and lack of opportunity on a larger public stage. The visits to Cuba by Pope John Paul II and former President Jimmy Carter were powerful for how they illuminated the contrast between Castro's rhetoric and record.

Travel exposes ordinary Cubans to the American experience. It offers people on both sides the chance to build ties through personal contact, outside the prism of animosity that has marked governmental relations for 40 years. Bush's claim that travel restrictions will hasten Castro's demise also understates the limits of American power. If assertive aspects of the U.S. trade embargo have failed to oust the Cuban leadership, then harassing college students or tourists who want to visit will hardly spark an uprising there. If anything, the president's Rose Garden moment - and especially his vague but ambitious promise that the government would work formally to "hasten the arrival" of new leadership - will only raise unrealistic expectations. The focus needs to be not on November 2004, but on the next generation of Cubans that will inherit Castro's disastrous legacy.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright