Don’t mess with Texas
Bush administration intimidates
Cuba-bound Canadian cruisers

This lovely old Morgan ketch was one of the few Canadian vessels at the Marina Hemingway when we visited in March.

By Peter Swanson

The Bush Administration appears to have pulled off an artful bluff in its diplomatic war against Fidel Castro’s Cuba, and it was directed at foreign mariners, particularly Canadian cruisers.

The bluff came in the form of a Feb. 26, 2004 White House proclamation, directing that the Homeland Security Department “make rules and regulations governing the anchorage and movement of any vessel, foreign or domestic, in the territorial waters of the United States, which may be used, or is susceptible of being used, for voyage into Cuban territorial waters.”

This proclamation, widely quoted in the boating magazines, went on to specify measures authorizing U.S. authorities “take full possession and control of any such vessel and remove the officers and crew and all other persons not specifically authorized by the Secretary of Homeland Security.”

Sounds pretty drastic, and it was certainly not a bluff where U.S. mariners were concerned. Prior to that declaration, U.S. authorities tolerated all but the most egregious violations of the embargo by American citizens taking their boats to Cuba. Afterward, all traffic to Cuba by U.S. recreational vessels effectively ceased. Coast Guard patrol boats roamed the Florida Straits stopping vessels and questioning their skippers.

During a recent visit to marinas on the North Coast of Cuba, including Hemingway Marina in Havana, the difference made by the Bush Administration’s anti-Castro initiative was evident. Compared to an earlier visit in 2002,

A source in the U.S. Coast Guard tipped off Commodore Jose Escrich of the Hemingway International Yacht Club about the discrepancy between U.S. political rhetoric and regulations.

many fewer foreign boats lined the concrete docks. U.S. agents reportedly have strolled through Marina Hemingway videotaping names and homeports of docked Yankee vessels. There may have been just one or two U.S. boats, but absent, too, was the multitude of Canadian and European boats of previous years.

Interviews with Cuban officials and the few Canadian cruisers who could be found at the docks confirmed that the Bush proclamation had convinced foreign mariners that they could face U.S. sanctions were they to enter U.S. waters after spending time in Cuba, a scenario that applies to most Canadian sailors, who use Florida as a staging area for their Caribbean adventures. They had heeded the part of the proclamation that specified “any vessel, foreign or domestic.”

The most dramatic result of this language was the cancellation of Rendezvous 2005, a sailboat rally organized by Ken Woods, a retired educator from Midland, Ontario. Woods said he was forced to cancel the rally to Havana after correspondence with U.S. officials, who were evasive in answering his questions about possible consequences for Canadian sailors passing through U.S. territory.

When pressed, a low-level U.S. embassy staffer seemed to confirm Woods’ worst fears. In an email to Woods, political officer Joshua Rubin wrote:

“After speaking with our Cuba desk officer in Washington, my answer is that a Canadian crew aboard a Canadian vessel traveling through American waters with no intent to carry funds or commerce to the Cuban people is "at risk" of removal from their vessel and seizure of their boat. The U.S. Coast Guard would be operating within their legal jurisdiction if they were to take such action...even for vessels that are clearly noncommercial. (More details)

“That said, you may still want to contact the Canadian Consulate in Miami to discuss the extent of this risk. I cannot speak to how often (if at all) the Coast Guard is taking such action. As I understand it, however, it is a legal

The docks at Marina Hemingway, once crowded with foreign vessels, are now quite empty. Most of these vessels are actually Cuban.

option that is available to them. I'm sorry that I was unable to return a more favorable answer to your inquiry.”

Nonsense, said Jose Escrich, commodore of the Hemingway International Yacht Club in Havana. Escrich, a retired Cuban naval officer, has a reputation for being well connected with officials on both sides of the Florida Straits, including, he said, at least one high-ranking Coast Guard officer. Escrich said the officer told him that the Presidential proclamation said one thing, while the actual federal regulations governing the U.S. Coast Guard held a completely different and opposite meaning.

Examination of Volume 69 No. 130 of the Federal Register, entitled “Unauthorized entry into Cuban Territorial Waters” appears to confirm Escrich’s assessment. Sanctions, according to the Register, would be applied against “any vessels of the United States and vessels without nationality…This rule does not apply to foreign flag vessels.”

Apparently when directed to make a rule about vessels “foreign and domestic,” Homeland Security addressed the issue of foreign vessels by default. By specifically excluding foreign flagged vessels, the rule really says: Canadian vessels may travel freely to Cuba through the United States.

In fact, this is how the regulations have worked in practice. Canadian and European cruisers, who sailed to Cuba despite the implied threat, said they had been stopped by Coast Guard patrols, interviewed courteously and allowed to proceed into Cuban waters. Nor had they heard any fellow countrymen complain they had been hassled in any way by the U.S. Coast Guard.

 Canadians in particular said they feared a second threat, however; they worried that they might not be issued cruising permits for U.S. waters on their way back to Canada. So far this does not appear to have happened. Returning foreign cruisers interviewed for this article said their receptions by U.S. officialdom in Florida had been without problems. For most,

This Canadian sailor, interviewed at the marina at Vita on the North Coast, said he feared retribution if he returned homeward through the United States.

however, the apparent absence of consequences has not emboldened them to face down George Bush’s Texas bluff.

Canadian sailor Don Barr summarized the effect of the Bush policy on his countrymen this way: “Without this (U.S. cruising) permit a yacht returning from Cuba could hit one U.S. port, then sail direct to a Canadian port which would be difficult given the seasonal difference. I have not heard of this ever happening but most Canadians seem to feel the consequences are too great, such as impounding of boat, legal fees, stress etc, so in that sense the bluff seems to work.”