Letter from NGOs to the Secretary of State
Dear Secretary Albright,
We the undersigned are humanitarian and development non-governmental organizations concerned about the hardship on the Cuban people arising out of their prolonged economic crisis. While each of us may differ in our views on U.S. policy towards Cuba and developments within Cuba, we are united in our deeply held concerns about the health, educational, and nutritional conditions of the people of Cuba.
Many of us are directly involved in humanitarian activities in Cuba and others of us are looking to initiate activities based on our organizational mission and capabilities. A continued concern of our organizations has been the delays and limitations imposed upon our activities due to the restrictions of the Office of Foreign Assets Control. While we do commend the Administration for taking steps to ease those procedures following the President’s announcement on January 5, 1999, we believe that the Administration has not gone far enough in permitting U.S. NGOs to support humanitarian activities in Cuba.
We are deeply concerned, therefore, by the long delays and considerable frustrations experienced by organizations such as Oxfam America, American Friends Service Committee, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and others in the licensing process to support humanitarian work in Cuba. A more expeditious, more open and more permissive licensing protocol is absolutely necessary for U.S. organizations to actively engage with Cuban counterparts.
We urge the State Department to adopt measures that will facilitate and expedite U.S. NGO support to Cuban counterparts. The Council for Foreign Relation’s Independent Task Force in their report U.S.-Cuban Relations in the 21st Century expressed:
“The United States should eliminate the need for licenses for humanitarian donations and shipments, including material aid and cash, and should grant a general license for related travel. We recommend that the United States impose no limit on the amount of material donations under such programs, while requiring a license for cash donations above $10,000 per year by any one American institution to its Cuban counterpart—with the exception of private foundations, for which we recommend waiving that limit and permitting the grant-making bodies to use their own institutional criteria to determine in-country funding limits.”
We appreciate your consideration of our concerns and would be happy to discuss with you or others these issues in greater detail.
Sincerely,
Martin Garate, Associate General Secretary, Int’l Regions American Friends Service Committee
Rev. Dr. Rodney Page, Executive Director Church World Service
Delvis Fernandez Levy, President Cuban American Alliance Education Fund
Peter Rosset, Executive Director Food First
John McAuliff, Executive Director Fund for Reconciliation and Development
Caryn Mandelbaum, Program Associate Global Exchange
Brenda L. Smith, Member, Board of Directors Global Links
Ralph Plumb, Director/CEO International Aid
David Jehnsen, Chair The Institute for Human Rights and Responsibilities
Linda Shelly, Director, Latin America/Caribbean Program
Mennonite Central Committee
Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar, General Secretary
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Richard M. Walden, President Operation USA
Raymond C. Offenheiser, President, Oxfam America
Louis L. Mitchell, President and CEO PACT, Inc.
Dr. Valora Washington, Executive Director, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
Ron Burkard, Executive Director World Neighbors
The above letter produced some results, though how far reaching is yet to be seen.
Oxfam America, which had seven license requests to support Cuban NGOs pending since November 1999, ultimately was granted licenses for six of the seven projects. The activities in Oxfam’s approved projects include support for Cuban farmers, urban growers and tornado victims. The U.S. government denied Oxfam’s request to provide management training to UBPC cooperatives, which were considered insufficiently independent of the Cuban government. The Counsel to the Secretary, Ms. Wendy Sherman, told Oxfam America that future license requests would be considered in a more timely manner.
Officials from the State Department and the U.S. Interest Section in Havana gave little indication that new protocols specifically requested in the letter would be forthcoming. The U.S. NGOs had asked that the need for licenses for humanitarian donations be eliminated and that licenses for cash donations on the part of private foundations be waived and replaced with the institutional criteria of each foundation.
--Minor Sinclair, Cuba Program Officer, Oxfam America msinclair@oxfamamerica.org