Elmer Smith: Enough is enough: Time to lift travel restrictions to Cuba

THEY DIDN'T mean to attract attention. But a group of American women can hardly escape notice in a Cuban hotel lobby.

I heard them before I saw them. Their unaccented English sounded a slightly discordant note in Havana's Parque Central hotel.

But, for me, it was a note from home.

The group, 35 women from the New York City chapter of the National Association of Women Judges and from the Chicago chapter of the National Association of Women Lawyers, invaded Cuba last week on what one called a "fact-finding vacation."

The Cuban government would like to call it a sign of things to come. American tourists would breathe new life into a country that has been impoverished as much by our anti-Castro policies as it has by the inherent inefficiencies of communism.

Miguel Alejandro Figueras, a Cuban tourism official, told a group of American journalists I was traveling with last week that one million Americans would visit Cuba within a year, if America would lift its restrictions on travel to Cuba.

He cited studies commissioned by American think tanks that estimate that unrestricted American tourism to Cuba would have a $565 million a year impact on America's economy.

"The airlines and the cruise ships would be American companies," Figueras explained.

But, despite the Obama administration's recent rollback of restrictions on travel to Cuba by Cuban exiles in America, the Cuban tourism ministry is not counting on an influx of American tourists.

A lot would have to change. When I was there six years ago, U.S. dollars could open any door. But the Bush administration tightened restrictions on the amount of U.S. dollars Americans could send or carry to Cuba in 2004. The Castro government responded by restricting the use of American money.

Canadians travel there directly. Americans must fly to Mexico or the Bahamas and exchange U.S. dollars for Euros or Canadian dollars and then exchange those in Cuba for "convertible Cuban pesos," which are worthless outside Cuba.

Our credit cards are useless and our cell phones don't work in Cuba. Almost everything has to be done on a cash-and-carry basis.

But Cuban hotels are inexpensive and comfortable. Cubans are friendly and accommodating, and tourists can move freely throughout the country.

For the American women I saw in Havana last week, amenities far outweighed inconveniences.

"I've been all over the world, but I always wanted to come here," said New York Supreme Court Justice La Tia W. Martin. "I just didn't know how.

"I learned that a group from the National Bar Association was here last year. I talked with them and then I asked my group if they were interested.

"They were ecstatic. I called the Marazul travel agency and they put it together in 90 days."

It wasn't easy. Americans have to apply as academics or journalists and obtain licenses and visas. You can't travel there simply as a tourist.

"We had to send in our resumes and provide certification to show that we were judges and lawyers," she said. "It was a five-stage application, but it was worth it."

I spoke with seven members of her travel group. They all said they hoped to return to Cuba, even with the current restrictions in place if need be.

The restrictions make us look hypocritical. Americans travel freely to communist China. We never let communism stand in the way of our business dealings with the Soviet Union.

We trade with Vietnam, where we wasted the lives of 58,000 of our young people in a fight against the very communists we do business with today. Are we to believe that Cuban communists are more dangerous?

When American radicals were hijacking U.S. airliners to Cuba, the Nixon administration signed a pact with Cuba that immediately ended hijacking.

There are still areas of mutual interest we could be pursuing. Cuba represents about as much of a threat to our way of life as Moldavia does.

But we continue to punish Cubans, most of whom have never been communist, to appease a tiny but vocal voting block in South Florida and North Jersey.

Send e-mail to smithel@phillynews.com or call 215-854-2512. For recent columns: http://go.philly.com/smith