Deadly Enticement OK When It’s Cuba

[Mika]

Deadly Enticement OK When It’s Cuba

Deadly Enticement OK When It’s Cuba
By Circles Robinson
HAVANA, CUBA

Hundreds of thousands of people attempt to reach the US illegally each year. A shot at the American dream, a reunited family, a better paying job or merely escaping from turmoil are some of the reasons that impel people to place their lives in the hands of human smugglers and risk everything to cross the border.

Traveling overland to the US is often treacherous, involving unscrupulous traffickers, bribes of police and border officials, robbers, and climatic extremes of heat and cold. Those who are caught anywhere along the way are immediately deported.

Those who succeed will join the ranks of other illegal immigrants, facing a clandestine life, exploitation without basic rights, and the constant threat of deportation. Those who have children with them run the risk of being separated after raids of factories, farms and other workplaces.

Some go well counseled of the risks involved, while others will learn when or if they arrive. In an election year like 2008, they become a political football with amnesty at one goal post, deportation at the other and the candidates taking up their positions at the extremes or somewhere in the middle.

In the case of Mexicans, Haitians, Colombians, Filipinos or Salvadorans it would be difficult to accuse the US government of enticing them to come. While it is clear that Washington’s foreign and economic policies have greatly increased poverty and inspired a new, massive emigration, the official US policy has been one of discouragement for all illegal immigration.

A DIFFERENT BALL GAME FOR CUBANS

In the case of Cuba the rules change, but not the dangers. The 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act grants any Cuban making it to US soil immediate temporary residency, a work permit, social security assistance, and virtually automatic permanent residency within a year.

Trying to reach the US by sea is even more dangerous than the land journey. But the US Congress encourages Cubans to gamble with their lives and those of their children, offering a big reward if they hit land. Over the decades, there have been thousands who didn’t make it and were never found.

The special law to lure Cubans has led to a flourishing smuggling business involving traffickers based in Florida with associates also working out of Mexico and Central America. These smugglers charge $8,000 to $12,000 per passenger on overcrowded speedboats.

During the last few days of 2007 and beginning of 2008, several news reports captured the human tragedy of this legal enticement.

The headlines couldn’t be more descriptive: Cubans Fear Families Lost at Sea; Two Cuba Migrants Die in Boat Capsize; Migrant Smuggling Spiked in Past Month; U.S. Plays Game With Cuban Immigrants; 40 Cubans Vanish during Crossing to Florida; Boat Capsizes near Miami, 8 Cubans Die.

Havana has repeatedly denounced the Cuban Adjustment Act as a killer law and demanded its repeal. However, the petition has fallen on deaf ears as the powerful Miami based Cuban-American lobby, with good connections in both the Republican and Democratic Parties, prefers the status quo.

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[Judi Lynn]

1. Good to read this article on Cuban migration. Most people don't know how well Cubans are

compensated for their effort if they can make dry land, as opposed to the life which awaits the migrants from other countries! Simply amazing, isn't it?

Glad to have read your column, or I may have never found out filmmaker Estela Brava has made yet another documentary:

AN EVENT THAT CAPTIVATES HAVANA

Living on a blockaded island gives added desire to see what other filmmakers are doing from other latitudes. The Havana Film Festival, which is totally non-commercial, offers the chance. Many movie lovers try to take part of their one month yearly vacation time to catch as many flicks as possible.

Before the festival began a “passport” was sold allowing the holder to go to 15 films at all the 20 participating cinemas for 20 pesos, the equivalent of US $0.80 or just over 5 cents a movie.

A daily tabloid is published with programs and film reviews which costs 1 peso. Cuban TV runs nightly festival news real, with information on collateral events, visiting movie industry personalities and highlights some of the films.

The landmark Hotel Nacional, pre-revolution hang out of the US Mafia, is the festival headquarters where press conferences are held and film buffs and students mingle with the visiting and local film industry personalities.

The current edition just concluded and most agree it was a good harvest. The best fiction film and three other awards went to “Silent Light” by Mexican director Carlos Reygadas. Julio Chavez (Argentina) won the best actor award for his role in "El otro" (The other) and Roxana Blanco (Uruguay) best actress in “Matar a todos” (Kill them all). The audience popularity award went to “The Black Pimpernel”, a Swedish-Danish-Mexican co-production.

“Who Am I”, the story of hundreds of Argentineans discovering who their real parents were and what the US backed dictatorship did to them in the 1970s and 80s, by acclaimed US director Estela Bravo, shared the award for best film on Latin America by a non-Latin America based filmmaker with “The Sugar Curtain.”

From Cuba, “Madrigal” by Fernando Perez won a Special Jury Award and another for best Art Direction, “Personal Belongings” by Alejandro Brugues finished third in the fiction category. A Colombian-Cuban short “Pucha Vida” finished second in the documentary category, and "Siberia," by Renata Duque Lasio, received a special mention in the short film category.

Festival President Alfredo Guevara gave the closing speech at the awards ceremony. He officially opened invitations to submit films for the 30th Havana Film Festival, to take place next December, only weeks before a major celebration expected for the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution.
(snip)

Would love to see "The Sugar Curtain," as well.

The chance Cubans have to see all these tremendous films coming out at the same time is phenominal. I'll bet that month is one long celebration.