Column No. 5162         

HISPANIC LINK

11/21/11

  

A FERRY-TALE REMEDY FOR OUR COLD WAR HANGOVER

By Ricardo Chavira

Hispanic Link News Service

  

A few weeks ago David Plouffe, senior advisor to President Obama, e-mailed me and, I assume, lots of other folks to ask if I had any ideas for creating jobs.

   

I actually do.

  

Just as important for our nation’s recovery, most of the 300 jobs that I have in mind would likely go to Hispanics, a group hit particularly hard by the recession. Eventually, more jobs would follow and the economy would receive a boost of several hundred million dollars. 

  

Yet, none of it will become reality unless the White House can get past short-sighted electoral politics and Cold War mentality. 

  

The job-creator is a proposed ferry service between Florida and Cuba.

   

Yes, Cuba.

   

Perhaps to avoid off any adverse feedback from the political exile lobby, the White House so far has shied away from authorizing the service.

  

The U.S. embargo and travel ban make it illegal for nearly all U.S. residents to visit Cuba.  Cuban Americans are exempt from such restrictions.

  

This year, after President Obama further loosened travel regulations in January, the numbers of Cuban Americans visiting family on the island has surged to 400,000. 

  

For most, the trips are not just family visits, but humanitarian missions. With just about everything hard to get in Cuba, family members come laden with clothes, shoes, electronic goods and the like.

  

The only way to make the trip is by air charters, which restrict what can be carried aboard and hefty baggage fees are charged for much of what is allowed.

  

A ferry — think of a mini-cruise ship complete with cabins and full meal service — would offer considerably cheaper fares. Passengers could bring along just about unlimited quantities of goods — TVs, microwaves, kitchen goods, for instance.

  

And the jobs, both on shore and aboard the ships, will require bilingual employees.

  

There is no downside for Cuban Americans.

  

Sadly, those they elected to represent their interests think otherwise.  U.S, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), would like to see existing travel restricted, alleging it’s little more than a lifeline to the Cuban government.  Rubio is representative of Cuban-American politicians who evidently think they were elected solely to battle the Cuban government.

  

He and other Cuban-American politicians overlook the fact that their constituents have a deep-seated desire to see family, regardless of who is in power in Havana. 

  

The application to initiate the ferry service was submitted two years ago. It is in keeping with established U.S. policy of fostering humanitarian, people-to-people contact. A ferry would simply change the means of transportation and, of course, make it lots less expensive to visit family.

  

The Cuban government is on the record in support of the ferry link. While many U.S. government agencies have privately made their support known, the project needs a White House green light to allow the Treasury Department to issue an operating license.       The unofficial word is that senior White House officials and re-election strategists worry that votes and campaign donations would take a hit should they sanction the service.

  

Another factor is the Cold War mindset that still infects U.S.-Cuba relations.  There is little question that Cuba is a dictatorship, but it long ago ceased being a security threat. 

  

Yet our policymakers too often are possessed by the notion that if we do anything that might remotely benefit the Cuban government, we are jeopardizing U.S. national security.

  

I did not respond to Mr. Plouffe’s e-mail, but I will now.

  

Tell the President, Mr. Plouffe, that he has a golden opportunity to generate some jobs in South Florida and show Hispanics and the rest of the nation that he is not beholden to narrow and antiquated politics. 

  

(Ricardo Chavira is Caribbean affairs adviser for United Caribbean Lines and Seabridge Ferry Services. Email him at ricardochavira50@yahoo.com.)

For this column and more, visit www.HispanicLink.org.

©2011

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