A Statement on U.S.-Cuba Relations
April 17, 2004
Consistent with our position over the past decade, we of the Alliance of Baptists renew our call for the removal of the ban on travel to Cuba imposed more than four decades ago and enforced by a succession of presidents of both political parties. We commend the Senate and House of Representatives for passing bills last year that would have removed the ban but express our outrage at the capitulation of the conference committee to a threatened veto of the legislation by President Bush.
We renew our call on Congress to pass similar legislation this year and pledge our renewed efforts to ensure that such proposals are passed with sufficient majorities to withstand a presidential veto. To that end, we pledge to continue working toward that objective.
We register our strong objection to the assignment of some 17 percent of the workers of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to the enforcement of the travel ban, as acknowledged recently by OFAC Director Richard Newcomb to a Senate committee. We further object to OFAC's pursuit and prosecution of those who choose to travel to Cuba without licenses rather than pursuing its congressionally mandated mission of tracking and freezing the assets of terrorists.
We further object to OFAC's decision last fall to cease granting licenses to educational institutions for "people-to-people" travel to Cuba.
Finally, we renew our commitment to working in coalition with others for the eventual normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba.
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Statement on Cuba
April 25, 2003
For more than four decades, the United States has maintained an economic .embargo on the nation of Cuba. These sanctions have caused untold hardships on the Cuban people, including chronic shortages of medicines, medical supplies, and nutritious foods. We lift our collective voice in protest of the continuation of these sanctions.
Although recent internal developments in Cuba appear to have slowed the momentum for remedial legislation in the U.S. Congress, we believe that the failure to enact :such laws will have as a primary consequence further injury to the people of Cuba.
We commend Rep. Jeff Flake, R-AZ, and other members of the bipartisan House Cuba Working Group, for offering legislation again this year in the First Session of the 108th Congress to lift the bans on travel, trade, and remittances. We urge other members of House of Representatives to support these measures.
We commend Sen. Max Baucus, D-MT, for his introduction of S. 403, the "United States-Cuba Trade Act of 2003," and its co-sponsors from both parties, legislation that would repeal the economic embargo in its entirety.
We register our objection to the Departments of State, Justice, and Homeland Security for the indignities imposed upon Cuban citizens invited to travel to the United States by groups such as the Alliance of Baptists. Leaders of groups such as the Fraternity of Baptist Churches of Cuba and officially designated members of its churches invited by the Alliance and its affiliated congregations should be granted travel visas without being treated as potential terrorists. We object to Cuba's listing as a "terrorist" state by our government.
We long for the day when statements such as this one no longer will be necessary, when along with our Cuban sisters and brothers we will be able to relate to and support one another without the layers of bureaucratic interference now enforced upon us.
Finally, we renew our commitment to a strong and vibrant partnership with the Fraternity of Baptist Churches of Cuba and its constituent congregations, including our promise to pray without ceasing for their shalom and that of all Cubans.
Adopted April 25, 2003
Vienna, Virginia
Download the 2003, 2002, 2001 statement on Cuba as an RTF file.
The Alliance of Baptists
A Statement on Cuba
Adopted April 6, 2002
Four decades ago, the U.S. government first imposed a comprehensive economic embargo on Cuba. These sanctions were authorized in a series of executive orders issued between 1962 and 1996. In the latter year, these sanctions were strengthened and codified in the Helms-Burton Act. As a consequence, the repeal of sanctions now requires action by both Congress and the White House.
In response to growing pressure and thanks to a strong bipartisan effort, Congress last year passed the Trade Sanctions Reform Act, thereby easing the embargo by permitting the sale of food and medicine to Cuba by the U.S. government. This legislation then was signed into law by the president. We commend the Congress and President Bush for this significant breakthrough.
Consistent with our stated position over the past several years, the Alliance of Baptists renews its call upon Congress and the president to build on the progress so recently made by enacting new legislation:
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To allow the unrestricted sale of food and medicine to Cuba with private financing.
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To lift the currently cumbersome process of licensing which inhibits normal humanitarian trade with Cuba.
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To eliminate the ban on travel to Cuba by most U.S. citizens.
We believe these to be reasonable next steps on the journey to normalization of relations with our Caribbean neighbor and commend them urgently to our nation's leaders.
We also reiterate our solidarity with our partner group, the Fraternidad de Iglesias Bautistas de Cuba, specifically with reference to its consistent commitment to the spiritual and material well-being of the Cuban people.
Download the 2003, 2002, 2001 statement on Cuba as an RTF file.
The Alliance of Baptists
A Statement on Cuba
April 21, 2001
As a partner body of the Fraternidad de Iglesias Bautistas de Cuba, the Alliance of Baptists, gathered in Annual Meeting today, reiterates its continuing solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Cuba in their ongoing struggle with the effects of the political and economic isolation imposed on their country by the policies of the United States of America for the past four decades.
At the beginning of a new Administration in Washington, we exercise anew our First Amendment freedom under the Constitution of the United States "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" with respect to our nation's policies toward Cuba. Beginning nearly a decade ago, our grievance has been and continues to be that the continuation of our outdated policies of diplomatic and economic sanctions impose untold hardship on the people of Cuba in contradiction of our best instincts as a people.
Accordingly, we request President Bush and his national security team to undertake a comprehensive review of U.S. policy toward Cuba. We urge Congress to begin to undo the damage done by the passage of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act by the full and prompt consideration of the "Bridges to the Cuban People Act" of 2001, to be introduced by U.S. Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and U.S. Representatives Jos E. Serrano of New York and Jim Leach of Iowa, a bill which includes the following components:
- Expansion of humanitarian trade to include (without licensing or shipping restrictions) food, medicine, agricultural equipment, and goods or services intended for the exclusive use of children;
- Restoration of the ability of U.S. banks and other financial institutions to make these sales;
- Importation of certain medical products made in Cuba that are not available in the U.S.;
- An increase of people-to-people contacts by the lifting of restrictions on travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens;
- Provision of scholarships for Cubans to pursue graduate studies in the U.S.;
- Removal of limitations on the amount of remittances that Cuban Americans may send to their families in Cuba; and
- Enhancement of presidential flexibility to waive additional titles of the Helms-Burton Act.
In the continuing effort to effect changes in U.S.-Cuba policy, we commend the work of our partner organization, the Latin America Working Group, and pledge to continue to collaborate with our LAWG colleagues in that effort.
Finally, we assure our sisters and brothers in the churches of the Fraternidad de Iglesias Bautistas de Cuba of our fervent prayers for the efficacy of their witness to our common Savior and Sovereign, Jesus the Christ, in their society, even as we implore them to pray for us in the offering of our witness in this society.
Download the 2003, 2002, 2001 statement on Cuba as an RTF file.