Eric Schmidt and Entourage Pay a Call On Cuba

VentureBeat reports that the unofficial Google ambassador to the world has made another significant visit to a place where Internet access is either forbidden or impractical for most of the citizenry; hopefully it heralds change on that front. Continuing his tour of countries with authoritarian governments and less-than-favorable Internet access, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt made a secret visit to Cuba yesterday. The U.S. government has forbidden its citizens from traveling to Cuba or spending any money within the country since cold war tensions in the 1960s. Even though the cold war is over, the ban remains in effect, which is why Schmidt’s visit is significant. Unofficially (meaning not on behalf of his company), the powerful Googler has also made controversial visits to North Korea and Myanmar to promote Internet freedom, and has previously spoken out against online censorship happening in both China and India. Schmidt, says the article, "was joined by a crew of former Google employees as well as author Jared Cohen."

Comments

So will he go to jail upon return to the US?

[LetterRip]

So what are the legal consequences for this?

Personally I'd like to visit Cuba but haven't, in part due to the illegality.

Re:So will he go to jail upon return to the US?

[LetterRip]

The ban has nothing to do with 'Cold War tensions' it is because Cuban immigrants to Florida hate Castro for the property that he nationalized - and pissing off those voters risk losing Florida in federal elections (and thus losing the Presidential election). Thus draconian prohibitions related to Cuba stay in place.

Re:So will he go to jail upon return to the US?

[nodwick]

Some types of travel to Cuba are legal. The US has been granting so-called "people-to-people" licenses to allow people to legally visit Cuba for the purposes of cultural exchange. According to the NYTimes, the visas were created by Bill Clinton in 1999, stopped being issued by Bush in 2003, and resumed being handed out in 2011 by Obama. More info from a Forbes article:

The whole purpose, for the US government’s perspective, is to intimately experience the day-to-day lives of residents while learning about Cuban cultural, social and religious organizations firsthand. For this reason, all participants are required to adhere to the approved full-time schedule of activities – beg off to relax by the hotel pool and OFAC could pull the company’s license.

So there are restrictions: you have to travel with a tour guide, and your trip agenda has to be filled with culturally-relevant activities rather than just random tourist stuff. It wasn't clear from TFA if Schmidt's visit was under this particular license, but his trip agenda ("to get a tour of Cuba’s University of Information Sciences in Havana and discuss life within the country") certainly sounded like it would have qualified.

Re:So will he go to jail upon return to the US?

[Anonymous Coward]

In practical terms, virtually nothing. I went for a couple weeks in the 1990's, driving to Toronto and joining a bunch of Canadian tourists on their chartered beach-vacation flight, ditching them as soon as we landed in Matanzas. The Cubans were perfectly happy to welcome a tourist with hard currency, even assenting to my friends' requests that their passports not be stamped with entry/exit visas.

Admittedly, those were the days that you could cross the Canadian border with a US driver's license, and I was so cautious that I sent my passport back home by FedEx from the Toronto airport, but absolutely nothing came of it. I've since renewed my passport (mailing in the visa-stamped old one to the State Department) and passed a state bar background check, so at least in my case it was easy to pull off.

Re:So will he go to jail upon return to the US?

[mattyj]

I took one of these person-to-person trips to Cuba two years ago and it was pretty awesome. It's nice to travel somewhere that hasn't been ruined by American interests yet (no Starbucks, no McDonald's, etc.) It wasn't that difficult, you can find tours through chambers of commerce or other travel groups.

The restrictions are not extremely enforceable, but know that the Cuban government is looking after you, too. Don't make an ass of yourself while there. In any case, roving around the country in an air conditioned tour bus was quite desirable, it was hot.

Aside from that, if you have some cultural relevance (teacher, sports figure, musician) you can go without it being a 'person-to-person' cultural exchange, I think you just have to clear it with the US Treasury. My guess is that Schmidt et al were able to do that, to spread the good word of a truly American company.

Re:So will he go to jail upon return to the US?

[ShanghaiBill]

Yep, without Florida last election, Obama would have lost by -71 electoral votes.

In either 2000 and 2004, GWB would have lost without Florida. Florida is a big swing state.

Re:So will he go to jail upon return to the US?

[Anonymous Coward]

You are missing the other half of it. The cubans that stayed, hate the cubans in Florida as much as the cubans in Florida hate the cubans that stayed.

I was in cuba with a group of attorneys. We were at a meeting with government officials who were explaining to us the evils of the US. In the middle of it, one of the attorneys blurted out, "Some of us quit divorce work because of people like you." That sentence pretty much sums up the entire state of US/Cuban relations.

In fact, I think the only thing holding Cuba together right now is the US government and the sanctions. The US government is the enemy the Cuban's are united against. I believe if the US were to just drop the sanctions, Cuba would fall apart pretty quickly.

Cuba is the US's neighbor and we should try to help them. They are trying to adopt some capitalism right now, and we should be trying to help. But for Cuba to move forward in a healthy way, there first needs to be a reconciliation between the Cuban's that left and the Cuban's that stayed and then Cuba has to accept that it is a third world country. Unfortunately, Cuba is not important enough for the US to devote the resources necessary to accomplish any of the above, and Cuba has neither the resources nor the ability to accept that any of the above is necessary.

So basically, Cuba is just F*cked and there is no easy way out for them.

Re: So will he go to jail upon return to the US?

[sumdumass]

Thats a crock of crap. The only countries in the embargo is the US. Even Canada and Mexico do not participate.

The only thing if anything denying Cuba food and medicine is either corruption in Cuba or Cuba's government. The US is not the only place Cuba can get food or medicine- cold war or not.

Re: So will he go to jail upon return to the US?

[Anonymous Coward]

The US send food and some medicine to Cuba. What is really stopping Cuba from having enough food and medicine is money. Cuba for the most part can't afford it. They think things cost so much because they have to import them from China and if they could import them from the US, they would be so much cheaper that they could afford them.

I compared prices for random tools available at a government store in Cuba. The tools were virtually identical to the made in China tools available at my local Home Depot for almost the exact same price.

Medicine is the same when the government bothers to import it. If you go to Cuba, you are requested to bring all sorts of over the counter things like aspirin and band aids. Those are the types of things that are difficult to get there.

Someone stopped us on the street and asked us for any extra toiletries we had from our hotel. He was hoping to get some soap for his daughter. He couldn't afford to buy them on his own.

Cuba is a third world country. The people can't afford basic necessities. The embargo isn't hurting them as much as they like to think.

I'm sure there is corruption in the government, but it isn't obvious. It doesn't appear that government officials are living large at the expense of the people. It just looks like the current economy can't support the entire population in a reasonable manner.

Re:So will he go to jail upon return to the US?

[pr0sp3r0]

When I was in Santiago I frequented a little coffee joint called El Combate. Absolutely delicious coffee, and shockingly cheap. Fuck Starbucks. Cuba not being covered by Coca Cola signs and other ads was like a breath of fresh air. Not saying Cuba's all hunky-dory, but there are some wonderful things about it that dropping the embargo would likely change for the worse.

Re: So will he go to jail upon return to the US?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a cuban living in Cuba (not a cuban-american). There is a mistake in your reasoning. Cuba, unlike the much of rest of the world, isn't allowed to borrow money from banks that have any (In practical terms) relations with US banks (or banks owned by US Banks), or banks that who's business is bigger with the US than with little Cuba. So Cuba has to buy "with cash in hand" in most cases -unlike the rest of the third world-. Many times in secret, to avoid any fears of retaliation -sorry for my bad English I know that is not the right word, but I don't remember any better right now- to the other part of the transaction. When I said "retaliation" I mean lost business with US enterprises due to the embargo... Multiply that by EVERY enterprise that has ANY US interest... Now you are getting the picture. And yes, there is corruption in the goverment, but small time, comparatively speaking. (Some "juniors" in mexico/colombia/etc. live much much better than ANY official in the cuban goverment)

Bad summary

[bananaquackmoo]

It is NOT impossible to LEGALLY visit Cuba. My friend did it in a study abroad program during college in the US. That said, they don't make it easy.

Re:Bad summary

[KingOfBLASH]

Actually, a lot of people just go through an intermediary country. Book a flight to Mexico City, then from Mexico City to Cuba. The Cuban customs will even give you the "stamp" on a piece of paper they staple on your passport. After you leave you can rip it out and the US government never needs know.

Why you would do this when visas are still available is beyond me, but people do do it.

I live in Canada

[Ralph Spoilsport]

We go there for vacation whenever the fuck we want. Americans need to get fucking clue and get over themselves. It's just fucking Cuba. No big deal. America has relations with China, and they've executed WAY more political prisoners than Cuba has, and you;re probably reading this on a Chinese built computer. So bag the anti-communist BS and grow up.

Re:I live in Canada

[binarylarry]

I think it raises the question, is he really Canadian?

Re:I live in Canada

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, American media, particularly media from Miami, could not possibly be biased about Cuba.

Re:I live in Canada

[cold fjord]

stations. There's no such thing as a 'chain' there, everything is one-off. Although, for some reason you can get M&M's and Pringles. Other than that, you're forced to go native and it was pretty great.

It is a lot less great if you live there. That is why they flee by the thousands, or tens of thousands, when they get a chance.

Fifty years later, Cubans still are fleeing the revolution

The Lost World, Part I

I’m used to seeing military and police checkpoints when I travel abroad. Every country in the Middle East has them, including Israel if you count the one outside the airport. The authorities in that part of the world are looking for guns and bombs mostly. The Cuban authorities aren’t worried about weapons. No one but the regime has anything deadlier than a baseball bat.

Castro’s checkpoints are there to ensure nobody has too much or the wrong kind of food.

Police officers pull over cars and search the trunk for meat, lobsters, and shrimp. They also search passenger bags on city busses in Havana. Dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez wrote about it sarcastically in her book, Havana Real. “Buses are stopped in the middle of the street and bags inspected to see if we are carrying some cheese, a lobster, or some dangerous shrimp hidden among our personal belongings.”

If they find a side of beef in the trunk, so I’m told, you’ll go to prison for five years if you tell the police where you got it and ten years if you don’t.

No one is allowed to have lobsters in Cuba. You can’t buy them in stores, and they sure as hell aren’t available on anyone’s ration card. They’re strictly reserved for tourist restaurants owned by the state.

The Lost World, Part II

Re:I live in Canada

[interkin3tic]

At this point, it has very little to do with communism. Florida is a big primary state and a big electoral state. Florida has a lot of Cuban-americans who would prefer we invade the island. They have traditionally fiercely opposed lifting the sanctions. Evidently this isn't as true as it was. Still, outside of cuban americans, not many people care one way or the other.

Thus, politicians gain very little and risk quite a bit by opposing the sanctions.

And yes, it is fucking stupid on multiple levels: it was probably always counter-productive, political leaders should show some fucking backbone and end it, citizens shouldn't be so apathetic about keeping an entire nation impoverished, and why is florida even allowed to vote?

But, dumb as all that is, "we still hate communism" is not a big reason why we still have sanctions.

Not quite

[WaffleMonster]

Restrictions are on commerce not travel.

You can go there as long as you don't spend any money.

Re:Good luck with that ...

[Patent Lover]

Cuba's only #7. Guess who's tied for #1? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:Good luck with that ...

[Patent Lover]

No, they go to jail for being black in a black neighborhood. When was the last time you were stopped and frisked while walking down the street?