The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

June 27, 2014

Statement by NSC Spokesperson Caitlin Hayden on U.S. Anti-Personnel Landmine Policy

Today at a review conference in Maputo, Mozambique, the United States took the step of declaring it will not produce or otherwise acquire any anti-personnel landmines (APL) in the future, including to replace existing stockpiles as they expire.  Our delegation in Maputo made clear that we are diligently pursuing solutions that would be compliant with and ultimately allow the United States to accede to the Ottawa Convention—the treaty banning the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of APL.  They also noted we are conducting a high fidelity modeling and simulation effort to ascertain how to mitigate the risks associated with the loss of APL.  Other aspects of our landmine policy remain under consideration and we will share outcomes from that process as we are in a position to do so.  

The United States shares the humanitarian goals of the Ottawa Convention, and is the world’s single largest financial supporter of humanitarian mine action, providing more than $2.3 billion in aid since 1993 in more than 90 countries for conventional weapons destruction programs.  We will continue to support this important work, and remain committed to a continuing partnership with Ottawa States Parties and non-governmental organizations in addressing the humanitarian impact of APL.

U.S.-Cuban Relations on Higher Ed Level Continue to Grow

Something historic happened last January at Miami-Dade College. At a community college that stands as one of the nation’s largest institutions of higher education with approximately 170,000 students spread across seven campuses, 15 foreign exchange students from Cuba arrived at the school for a semester of study.

Despite the trade embargo and the lack of formal diplomatic ties between the United States and the communist island nation, American colleges have maintained relationships with Cuban universities for the last several decades. Many send professors and students to Cuba for study or research. But this was the first time in more than 50 years that the Cuban government had permitted students to come to the United States to study.

The student exchange is just one of several examples of change by the Cuban government in recent years. The government has relaxed some of its hardline policies and restrictions on issues like foreign travel by Cubans, as well as property and small business ownership. Political observers say some of these changes are driven by a need for a greater infusion of cash into the island nation. This way, a significant number of Cubans get to travel abroad. Some of these emigrants don’t return, but most send remittances back to relatives and friends at home, a move that significantly aids Cuba’s tattered economy.

This new form of openness by the Cuban government could lead to more bridge building between colleges and universities in both countries.

International students from Cuba are already studying at American colleges in small but slowly rising numbers. According to Open Doors data supplied by the Institute of International Education, 76 students from Cuba were enrolled in U.S. universities during the 2012-13 school year, up from 57 the previous year.

“There is a great desire from higher education institutions in both countries to see an increase and broadening of U.S.-Cuba exchanges,” IIE president Allan Goodman tells Diverse by email. “There are a number of U.S. college and university pioneers that have been bringing American students to Cuba for many years, but the opportunity for true mutual exchange remains challenging.”

Continues Goodman, “Despite a host of challenges, institutions in both countries have expressed the need to expand exchange opportunities; not only for students, but also for faculty and researchers. The potential for collaboration is clear and the motivation is high, but institutions will need to continue to navigate the ever-changing infrastructure to ultimately see any results.”

Some of the barriers to making programs like this happen are both financial and political. Most Cubans can’t afford the thousands of dollars (in some cases tens of thousands of dollars) to study at an American college. Moreover, many U.S. politicians still have tough attitudes about a communist regime that’s been running the Caribbean nation for 55 years. The state of Florida, for example, has a law that forbids public colleges from using state funds for Cuban-related programs or exchanges.

Most foreign exchange students pay their own way or get scholarships to come to the U.S. to study. The students’ tuition, travel and boarding expenses were paid for by the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, which received a grant from a U.S. agency.

Students’ experiences

The students are a diverse mix of gender, race and age. While some of the students are teenagers, others have college degrees or law degrees, says Dr. Victor Vazquez-Hernandez, chair of the Social Sciences Department at the Miami-Dade Wolfson campus and the designated college official who oversaw the process of recommending courses for the students.

In addition to English language classes, the students, who are in the states on a six-month visa and are scheduled to return home in July, took courses in principles of business, psychology of personal effectiveness, introduction to computers and introduction to sociology. In all, they earned 12 credit hours apiece.

“The 12 credits are all transferrable,” says Vazquez-Hernandez. “They will transfer anywhere. The courses were chosen based on information we received about their needs.”

Vazquez-Hernandez says the campus and the community have embraced the students. “They’ve visited all campuses,” he notes. “They have had a chance to interact with students.”

Vazquez-Hernandez adds that the students met with a broad spectrum of the student body, including student leaders.

“One professor invited them to visit her history of Cuba class. They attended graduation on May 2. They were very taken by it. The faculty has indicated that the students have adapted well. They’ve been nothing but welcomed with open hands.”

As is typical with most international students, there have been some adjustments.

“It’s been intense for them because they have a schedule that is pretty full,” says Vazquez-Hernandez. “That took time to get used to. And the fact that they have free time — when you come from a system that is pretty regulated and no one is following you around — [that] took getting used to as well.”

Expanding exchange

The exchange program at Miami-Dade College has attracted the attention of other colleges.

Dr. Jorge Duany, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, says his institution had been exploring the possibility of having a similar program at FIU, hoping to bring 15 to 20 students from Cuba.

He says he was pleasantly surprised to learn about the arrival of the Cuban exchange students at Miami-Dade College.

“I was disappointed we weren’t the first,” says Duany, a professor of anthropology.

He says FIU still plans to have an exchange program with a Cuban college. He says they would like to focus on specific areas like business administration, computer programming, English, hospitality and tourism management. Those latter areas, Duany says, are critical for the Cuban economy. He says these kinds of programs can be vital in erasing decades of enmity between the countries.

According to Duany, FIU is targeting next summer for the program, but admits pulling it off is complicated. He says university officials are trying to coordinate interdisciplinary faculty. The university has also identified private partners who would work with them and help fund the program since state law won’t permit the university to pay for it.

Duany says the academy is a great environment for bringing people of both nations together.

“The two countries don’t have diplomatic relations,” he notes. “So it is important to have this people-to-people contact. The university is probably the best place to have this happen.”

Tomas Bilbao, executive director of the Cuba Study Group, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., that has argued that the embargo is ineffective and counterproductive to U.S. interests, says the larger challenge moving forward will be how to expand programs like that at Miami-Dade College so it reaches a wider range of Cuban society and “not just singling out people because of their ideological beliefs.”

“It’s a great start,” he says. “The more people we have, the more diversity of opinion, race, geography and gender, the better. We can’t simply rely on one organization and one community college.”

Bilbao adds that, while he understands the natural affinity for Florida, he would like to see more exchange students from Cuba spread throughout the country.

Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies and a professor of history at the University of Miami, agrees that, for the program to have significant impact, it has to get bigger. But he says he’s not holding his breath.

“The Cuban government is not going to allow it on a large scale,” says Suchlicki, who left Cuba as a 19-year-old college student in 1960 and has not been back. “They are very concerned about penetrating influence. They are not going to allow it to happen on a large scale. There’s a reason why they’ve been in power for (55) years.”

by Lekan Oguntoyinbo

On Being Gay, And Socialist, In Cuba Today

by JASMINE GARSD

June 26, 2014 3:46 PM ET

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Isbel Diaz Torres is an LGBT activist in Cuba. He sees his fight for equality as an extension of Cuba's socialist revolution.

David Gilkey/NPR

It was very late at night the last time Isbel Diaz Torres and his boyfriend were stopped by Cuban police.

"They asked for our IDs, which is a rare procedure," Diaz recalls.

The policeman then dropped the men's IDs on the floor.

" 'That's very funny for you, a very funny thing to do,' " Diaz, an LGBT activist, said to the policeman. " 'Because you want to humiliate me, that's right?' "

He took the policeman's information down and went to the station to report him.

"It wouldn't change anything, but it is my civic duty," the 38-year-old Diaz says.

There is a long history of homophobia on the island. "Sons of the bourgeois, they go around with their little pants that are too tight. ... They want to do their girlie scenes out in the open," is how former Cuban President Fidel Castro attacked the young opposition in a 1963 speech at the steps of the University of Havana.

During that time, gay people, along with other "counter-revolutionaries," were sent to forced labor camps.

Cuba's attitudes toward sexual orientation have changed a lot since then: There's been a recognition of LGBT rights, promoted in no small part by Castro's own niece, Mariela Castro. Fidel Castro himself has recently criticized the machismo culture of Cuba and urged for the acceptance of homosexuality.

Activists like Diaz acknowledge the importance of these changes, but say it's hardly enough. Diaz says it's happening mainly in Havana, the capital, where there are gay-friendly bars, for instance.

But Diaz says he wants to be more than just able to have a good time out in the open.

"We can socialize. We can be together and have fun together," he says. "But you cannot build political groups in those bars. You wouldn't be allowed."

Ultimately, Diaz wants concrete laws protecting the Cuban LGBT community.

"We recently have changes in the Communist Party where they included a clause claiming respect for people with different sexual orientation," he says. "But that is not enough, because most of the people here in Cuba are not part of the Communist Party. We need real laws."

The Young Cuban Who's Bringing Activism In Line With The Revolution

For example, if his boyfriend is in the hospital, Diaz wouldn't be able to visit him.

"Entrance to the hospital is limited to the familia, the close relatives," he says. "I wouldn't be allowed in ... even if we lived together for 13 years."

Attitudes toward the Cuban regime have traditionally been very polarized — split neatly between a right-leaning opposition and leftist supporters. But a new generation is changing that. Diaz represents a class of young socialists that is also highly critical of the government.

Diaz is a member of the group Observatorio Critico, or Critical Observatory, a network of collectives seeking a place in the Cuban political landscape. They have a blog, which they publish via email since Internet access is limited in Cuba. The activists aren't really able to see the final product, or the comments, but still like to have an online voice.

Staking a claim in cyberspace is difficult for these groups. Finding an actual physical meeting place is an even bigger challenge. Often, they meet in the park.

In fact, that's where we meet with Diaz; he says he doesn't feel safe bringing us to his house. But meeting in public to discuss discontent has its drawbacks — namely, unwelcome guests from the government listening in.

The Cuba Diaz envisions is one where everyone can be involved in the decision-making.

"We also are fighting for a country where all the differences can be shared," he says. "Racial differences or cultural differences or sexual differences can be, can live together, can find a space for themselves here."

It sounds utopian, but Diaz is OK with aiming high.

"Maybe centuries ago it was funny to talk about the eradication of slavery, and it happened," Diaz says. "I think utopia, that's what moves a lot of people and thinkers and people of action during the history of humankind. We don't have to be afraid of that."

Travel Freedom Raises Questions About U.S. Policies Toward Cuba

by GREG ALLEN

After being away for decades, many members of the first generation of Cuban-American exiles are returning to their native land. But there are still many uneasy with the relaxed travel restrictions.

Copyright © 2014 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And I'm David Greene in Miami. We came here after a trip to Cuba. We visited the island now to try and understand how it's been evolving and what impact, if any, the changes have meant in people's lives. But one big change is actually playing out right here in Miami. We're going to talk about with NPR's Greg Allen who's based here. And I have the pleasure of sitting right next to him a park bench. Greg, it's good to see you.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: Hi, David.

GREENE: So we're in a neighborhood called Little Havana. Help us understand exactly what this place is.

ALLEN: Right, well, this was the neighborhood that was first settled by Cubans when they came to America, even before the Cuban revolution. In more recent years, though, many Cubans live, of course, throughout the entire state of Florida. This has remained, though, a cultural touchstone for Cuban-Americans. As you go up and down the street you see plenty of coffee shops - agencies where you can send money directly to Cuba - also botanicas, the little shops that have herbal remedies and religious paraphernalia. It's got a real feel, here, of Cuba.

GREENE: It does. I mean having just been in Havana, it's amazing how familiar it is. And you and I are actually sitting in a park looking at a huge map of Cuba, if we needed any help with the geography. But as important as the connections are - as important as Cuban culture is here, it's important to remember that a lot of people here in these neighborhoods around us, for a long time never traveled to the island even though it's so close.

ALLEN: Right, for many years - you had people who had arrived here, say, in the 1960s, and they wouldn't go back at all - refused to go back to the dictatorship, for one reason. Also, it was difficult. In recent years, though, we've had - the administration in Washington has lifted most of the restrictions on travel. So for Cuban-Americans, you can go to Cuba as much as you want. Also, even more surprisingly, we've had the Cuban government lift restrictions on their citizens in recent years. So now, for the first time, we've got Cubans traveling freely from the island - coming here and going back - coming on shopping trips and going back. You see it every day at Miami's airport.

GREENE: It's worth noting these changes - really recent. They're happening really quickly.

ALLEN: Right, I mean, traveling to Cuba was really controversial here for Cuban-Americans until fairly recently. Let me play you some tape from a news report from a TV station here in Miami.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Travel agents say that it was set on fire overnight, and investigators believe this was no accident.

ALLEN: And David, that was just two years ago. A travel agency run by Vivian Mannerud that operated charter flights to Cuba was firebombed. Investigators confirmed it was arson.

VIVIAN MANNERUD: It was sobering, but it was right after we had finished the papal visit.

ALLEN: Police still haven't made any arrests. Mannerud is convinced, though, that the firebombing was connected with work she did with Miami's Catholic archdiocese, helping fly some 600 people to Cuba to attend a mass celebrated by Pope Benedict the 16th.

MANNERUD: And we had taken many Cuban-Americans - many who had said they would never go back to Cuba - many prominent Cuban-Americans, many wealthy Cuban-Americans. There was a part of the community that was very upset that all these people went to Cuba for the Pope's visit.

ALLEN: Many see that papal visit as a turning point. Some prominent Cuban-American businessmen, long opposed to any opening to Cuba, planned return trips and began supporting economic and civic engagement. The most prominent was Alfonso Fanjul, billionaire head of Domino Sugar.

At Miami's airport, the charter flights that leave daily for Havana are mostly filled with Cubans returning home after a visit and Cuban-Americans who have arrived in recent decades. But you also find Cuban-Americans, like Irene Ruiz, who left Cuba nearly 50 years ago.

IRENE RUIZ: I get out in 1966, and I back in '96 or '97.

ALLEN: It's a familiar story. After being away for decades, in recent years many members of that first generation of Cuban-American exiles have been returning to their native land.

RUIZ: You have family, and then you need your family. You need that love - your family. And then I decide to go and see my family.

ALLEN: Changing attitudes toward Cuba also showing up in polls of Cuban-Americans. Support for the embargo is dropping. A majority of Cuban-Americans in South Florida now support unrestricted travel - also talks in trade between the U.S. and Cuba. Tomas Bilbao is with the Cuba Study Group, an organization founded by Cuban-American businessmen who favor engagement with the island. With the upswing travel, he believes Cuban-Americans are voting with their feet.

TOMAS BILBAO: And let me just be clear. I don't think anyone's saying that we need to reward the Cuban regime. I think that what we need to do is focus on helping the Cuban people, even if that provides a benefit to the Cuban regime.

ALLEN: But there are still many Cuban Americans uneasy with the relaxed travel restrictions. They include Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SENATOR MARCO RUBIO: There are people that come here, and six months after they arrive - a year and half after they arrive, they're going back to Cuba 18 times a year. And I'm telling you, that's a problem.

ALLEN: That's Rubio speaking last year to U.S. Cuba Democracy PAC, a lobbying group that takes a hard line against any move to weaken sanctions on Cuba. Relaxed travel restrictions now allow Cuban entrepreneurs to travel back and forth, ferrying goods and remittances between Miami and Havana, which Rubio says helps the Castro regime. To counter that, he says the U.S. may want to revisit the special status Cubans have long enjoyed as political refugees.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RUBIO: People all over the country are turning to us and saying, well, why do you have a Cuban Adjustment Act? Cuban Adjustment Act exists for people that are refugees and exiles and that - of course there are refugees and exiles from Cuba. But if you're going back 18 times a year, we have to deal with that issue. That's a problem.

ALLEN: Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, after being here for a year Cubans receive permanent residency status and become eligible for government benefits, ranging from supplemental social security income to disability. Maurice Claver-Carone of U.S. Cuba Democracy PAC says there's evidence that some Cuban migrants are abusing their special status, qualifying for government benefits here and spending the money in Cuba.

MAURICE CLAVER-CARONE: In a country where the average salary is $18 a month, which is Cuba, you know, $200 per month is 10 times that. So you live comfortably in Cuba. So people are making the decision - hey, we essentially can live off the government here, but, you know, essentially living most of our time in Cuba.

ALLEN: And David, there has been some talking in Congress about amending the Cuban Adjustment Act to differentiate between political refugees and those who come here for economic reasons.

GREENE: Alright, NPR's Greg Allen with that report. We're sitting together in the little Havana neighborhood of Miami. And, you know any changes to the law I can imagine Greg, probably a pretty sensitive topic.

ALLEN: Right, I mean when you talk about Miami's Cuban Americans, you're talking about a very important voting bloc in the nation's largest swing state. So changes will be done very carefully if at all.

GREENE: All right that's the view of Cuba from Florida. I want to bring in one other voice here and it's the voice of the person sitting to your left on the park bench here Greg. Jasmine Garsd, our colleague who hosts NPR music's alt Latino and was the interpreter for our trip to Cuba. And Jasmine, you and I talked a lot during the trip about what you thought of Cuba growing up in Argentina. It had a resonance that's different than the one that's sort of Americans are familiar with. Explain to me what you're talking about.

JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: Sure absolutely. Well I think it's important to understand that Latin America has a really different relationship with Cuba than the U.S. does. There's definitely a romantic vision of Cuba, a vision of Cuba as a paradise island, some of that is based in certain facts, I mean it is pretty impressive in a Latin American country to have achieved literacy and college education rates like Cuba has, universal healthcare. And there's definitely I think a sense in Latin America of Cuba as romantically feisty, you know, of a nation that was at some point exploited by foreign interests like so much of Latin America is and stood up for themselves. Of course, you know that vision is counterbalanced by directors who make legitimate points out human rights abuses, freedom of speech, all valid points. But there's definitely a very different perspective about Cuba in Latin America.

GREENE: Different perspective. OK, you grew up with that different perspective. Now that you've been for the first time what are your impressions?

GARSD: I think a lot of the great things I heard about Cuba are true. There is universal health. As we saw people are so educated on that island.

GREENE: Yeah.

GARSD: But they're also struggling with serious human rights issues. They're struggling with access to information; I mean we meet these highly educated people that don't have access to the Internet. So, I would just say some things are just so wonderful and some things are so disappointing. It's a complex story.

GREENE: All right, NPR's Jazmine Garsd and NPR's Greg Allen. Thank you both so much.

ALLEN: My pleasure.

GARSD: Thank you.

GREENE: We're sitting on a park bench in Little Havana, also sitting here - NPR's Nick Fountain, who did the fine production work for our trip to Cuba. You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.

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Cuba's Budding Entrepreneurs Travel A Rocky Road Toward Success

by DAVID GREENE and JASMINE GARSD

When Americans think of business in Cuba, they think of government-owned enterprise. And the vast majority of Cubans do work for the state.

But in recent years, private business owners known as cuentapropistas have flourished on the island.

Cuentapropismo literally means "on your own account." As far back as the 1970s, Fidel Castro was talking about how socialism and small business ownership could coexist. Today, they do so more than ever: Between 2010 and 2013, the Cuban government expanded the list of privately owned business ventures, such as construction work, restaurants and tailoring, that are legal on the island.

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Franco says business was booming when she was able to import clothing from countries like Brazil and the U.S. Once the government cracked down on imports, she learned to sew.

David Gilkey/NPR

About 1 million people — or 20 percent of the Cuban workforce — can now be classified as wholly in the private sector,according to a report by Richard Feinberg of the Brookings Institution.

Barbara Fernandez Franco remembers being excited when that list of government-permitted businesses first came out. She combed through the 200-odd jobs, and thought carefully about which she could do. She decided on the "tailor and seamstress" category.

We met 28-year-old Barbara in one of the aging but gorgeous buildings that line the narrow colonial streets of central Havana, Cuba's capital. Sitting in the stairway, she tells us it's been a difficult road full of stumbles.

She started off reselling clothing a friend made, but the profit margins were very small. Then, she began buying clothing from abroad — from countries like Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico — which she then resold.

At first the project was as rocky as any startup business. But a few months down the line, she says, the profits were outstanding. Barbara was able to save a good amount of money — which today is helping her purchase a new home with her boyfriend, Michel Perez Casanova.

But that boom in business soon came to an end when the government announced that importing clothing for resale on the island would be illegal as of Dec. 31, 2013.

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After Franco learned to sew, she started producing baby clothes and mosquito nets for cribs.

David Gilkey/NPR

Barbara was devastated by the news, she says, but while other businesses shut down, she chose to carry on as best she could: She learned how to sew and created her own line of baby clothing and mosquito netting for cribs.

At a small restaurant in the port city of Mariel, owner Onil Lemus told us everyone he knows is absolutely thrilled about the widening scope of legal business ventures. In fact, he jokes that he liked it better when there where fewer cuentapropistas —because he had less competition.

Even though business is good for Onil, he echoed what several other small enterprise owners said to us: One of the biggest challenges has been the lack of raw materials. In Mariel, for example, Onil said, there's no access to wholesale food markets, which are so important to the restaurant industry.

Pointing to the delicious lamb stew he'd prepared for us, he explained that he'd had to go to a farm to buy the meat, but foods like rice and beans — staples in Cuban cuisine — are hard to buy in large quantities at good prices.

Similarly, Barbara said certain fabrics and ornaments are so expensive, it would be impossible for her to make a profit if she were to use them.

The widespread sentiment here is that the U.S. embargo — which has been in place for more than 50 years and is known asel bloqueo, or "the blockade," on the island — is largely responsible for these kinds of difficulties.

Since taking over for his brother Fidel in 2008, Raul Castro has been pushing to modernize the economy. Onil said he's confident that as the number of private business owners grows, the government will address these issues.

Barbara's boyfriend, Michel, on the other hand, seemed more disheartened.

"Some tourists say that this country's growing up now and it's going to get better and better," he said. "But, you know, the system here is so slow. Step by step. Very, very, very slow."