Tourism Apartheid Compensation Act

Tourism Apartheid Compensation Act

One thing certain about all communist regimes – they keep meticulous records of their dastardly rule. That means once they fall from power in the very near future we will be finally able to access the records. Besides getting a final count on those murdered, tortured, imprisoned and disappeared – we will also find out who has been doing business and pleasure in Cuba. As for the ones doing business with this illegal regime, we will deal with them one by one on a case-by-case basis – very severely. But we must also deal with the pleasure seekers who enjoyed the wonders of Cuba that were banned to the regular Cuban people.

There are several ways to approach this issue. One would be to ban anyone who vacationed in Cuba during the apartheid years from ever visiting Cuba again. However, I feel this is too harsh. Certainly, with normalization of relations with the US, Cuba will have a boom in legitimate tourism. Therefore I suggest Cubans pass the Tourism Apartheid Compensation Act. The act would state that any foreign adult individual who vacationed in Cuba during the illegal apartheid years should be denied entry into Cuba until they have paid a fine of $100 for everyday or part thereof, for each and every day spent in Cuba as guest of the Castro regime. A list of offenders will be provided to all border control agents to check against the list of arriving passengers. Anyone caught arriving to Cuba with an outstanding civil fine for violating the Tourism Apartheid Compensation Act would be required to pay their fine in full or be immediately deported. Children should be exempt from this civil fine.

Sure many will simply never come to Cuba again, which is fine with me. Others will do the right thing and pay their fines. But it is the least they can do to compensate the Cuban people for this abuse of Cuban sovereignty.

Tomás Estrada-Palma