We've long argued that this category of travel amounts to nothing more than "people-to-Castro" travel, as these trips are pre-approved and hosted by the Castro regime and involve more interactions with government officials than with regular Cubans.
Case and point was one of the panelists -- Sandra Levinson, Executive Director of the Center for Cuban Studies.
Last Fall, we highlighted some of this group's itineraries:
"The trips hosted by the Center for Cuban Studies almost all include meetings with the daughter of current dictator Raul Castro, the Ministry of Culture, the official cultural censors (UNEAC), the Ministry of Public Health, the repressive neighborhood watch committees (CDR), and of course, visits to Varadero beach to learn 'how tourism affects the community'."
As if this weren't enough, it was fascinating listening to Ms. Levinson, who during the HuffPost Live debate admitted that her trips are not meant to advance freedom and democracy (3:15 and 30:22 mark), refused to recognize that Cuba is ruled by a repressive dictatorship (7:20 mark) and even accused one of the young panelist (who happens to be a Democrat and Obama supporter) of inciting "terrorism" by criticizing the Castro regime (32:50 mark).
That's who is hosting these "people-to-people" tours to Cuba!
Their license should be altogether revoked.
One final note -- it was also asserted during the debate that these "people-to-people" tours have helped some dissidents, including Harold Cepero of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL), who was recently killed in a car crash along with MCL leader Oswaldo Paya.
That is blatantly false.
Cepero's interaction with U.S. visitors stems from the "support for the Cuban people" travel, a wholly different (and long-existing) category aimed at helping Cuban civil society, which is supposedly the focus of U.S. policy and is the type of travel we should be reinforcing.
Yet another reason why the new "people-to-people" category amounts to little more than a tourism facade, which is against U.S. law.
