Washington's War on Cuba Includes Your Hotel Room

US government restrictions prohibit US travelers to Cuba from staying in Havana’s iconic Hotel Nacional. Photo: Hotel Nacional

The U.S. government is going crazy with its shameful war on Cuba. Every week, there’s a new sanction, a new restriction, a new way to punish the Cuban people—and limit the rights of Americans to travel to Cuba and meet with whomever we want. The only other place in the world where the US government restricts travel is with North Korea.

So what are the restrictions on travel to Cuba? First, Americans can only travel to Cuba under US government-approved categories. Granted, there are quite a number of categories available–from visiting relatives to bringing donations to the Cuban people—but if you want to go lie on the white, sandy beaches of Varadero, that’s a no-no,

Then Americans are told—by our government—where they can and cannot sleep while visiting Cuba. The ridiculous U.S. Department of State’s Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List, contains over 400 hotels that the U.S. alleges have some kind of connection to the Cuban government and are therefore off limits. So if you wanted to stay at Havana’s iconic Hotel Nacional—a place where tourists from around the world have flocked for decades—you could theoretically face penalties of more than $91,000 for violating U.S. sanctions. (I wonder if Trump will go after right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley, who recently stayed there while filming a hit piece on the Cuban government.)

This week brought new sanctions on organizations in Cuba, including the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the People (ICAP), which helps organize trips for groups from all over the world, providing access to Cuban hospitals, schools, organic farms, and other institutions. Also sanctioned was Amistur Cuba, the travel agency that arranges transportation and logistics for many international visitors.

With these new restrictions, Washington is effectively telling Americans not only where they can stay, but increasingly who they can and can’t meet with while visiting Cuba.

These sanctions are part of a much broader, cruel campaign to squeeze the Cuban economy tighter and tighter until the government falls.

So our government thinks it has to restrict our travel to Cuba because Cuba does not have a democratic government. Yet roughly half the countries in the world don’t have genuinely competitive multiparty elections—to say nothing of countries like our own, where elections are corrupted by big money.

Take China. It’s a one-party state. Yet U.S. companies do hundreds of billions of dollars in trade there and millions of Americans travel there. Nobody tells you which hotel you’re allowed to stay in or who you’re allowed to meet.

How about Saudi Arabia—an absolute monarchy that has never held a national election? You’re totally free to travel there, even stay at a government-owned hotel. Never mind that the Saudi government carried out 356 executions last year. Are there executions in Cuba? None—not just last year, but for more than two decades.

Want to stay in a luxury hotel near the Egyptian pyramids owned by the Egyptian government? Go right ahead—even though Human Rights Watch estimates that Egypt holds about 60,000 political prisoners, compared to roughly 700 in Cuba.

Want to go surfing in Las Flores, El Salvador? No problem—even though El Salvador has the highest incarceration rate in the world and detains thousands for long periods without trial.

But Cuba? That’s where Washington draws the line.

Let’s be honest. This isn’t about democracy. If it were, these rules would apply everywhere. They don’t. This policy is vindictive, hypocritical, and cruel. It hurts Cuban families, but it also undermines people-to-people connections and strips us–U.S. citizens–of our basic freedom to travel.

It’s time to end this failed policy. Leave Cuba alone. And let Americans decide for ourselves where we travel, what hotel we stay in, and who we talk to.