The number of Americans traveling to Cuba has increased since Obama’s December 17th announcement, and predictably so has the violent repression and arrests of Cuba’s peaceful dissidents. Especially since U.S. travelers now need only to “self-certify” the category of their trip.
Mocking the Cuban People (and Breaking U.S. Law)
In a story encouraging Americans to break the law by engaging in tourism-related transactions with the Castro regime, the AP gives the following example:
“New Yorker Zach Chaltiel, 28, traveled to Havana from the U.S. with some buddies after graduating from law school. He researched the trip online, booked a villa through Airbnb, hired a driver, and filled out a form saying the purpose of his trip was ‘support for the Cuban people,’ one of the 12 authorized travel categories. ‘It’s so easy,’ said Chaltiel as he shared drinks with friends at the Hotel Nacional, overlooking the sea as a peacock strutted by. ‘I just wanted to go before it becomes all Americanized.'”
Chaltiel is a newly branded lawyer with no regards for the law and an aversion for “Americanized” vacation destinations — preferring totalitarian dictatorships instead.
But that’s not the most insulting part of his irreverence
The “support for the Cuban people” category was created to help the island’s courageous democracy movement.
According to the Treasury Department, this category was created to support “the activities of recognized human rights organizations; independent organizations designed to promote a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy; and individuals and non-governmental organizations that promote independent activity intended to strengthen civil society in Cuba.”
But Chaltiel (seen below with his buddies) thinks it’s cute to use it as a pretext to lie to the authorities and go party with his friends in Havana.Of course, while they were enjoying drinks at the Castro regime’s Hotel Nacional, courageous Cuban democracy activists — for which the “support for the Cuban people category” was created — were being brutally beaten and arrested.
It’s a mockery to the Cuban people.
And it’s the Treasury Department’s Constitutionally-mandated obligation to enforce the law.
Wait, the POTUS and the pope are doing what they’re doing, and this two-bit asshole’s gonna pass on feeding at the trough? Please. And he’s a lawyer, too, so of course he’s going to play word games (see Bill Clinton). Look, Cuba is a frigging joke for all practical purposes–just ask the whores of Babylon, I mean Paris Hilton and Naomi Campbell, for instance. Our problem is we keep expecting the world to take us seriously. Oh, and don’t even think of bringing this to the attention of Loretta Lynch–she’s likely to consider it racist.