Here’s real reason for Cuba’s lack of tourism

Two takeaways from President Donald Trump’s Cuba speech in Miami on June 16.

One: When it comes to Cuba, it’s very hard for one American president to undo what the previous one did. Trump said he was “canceling the last administration’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba.”

But in reality, he ratified two major pieces of President Barack Obama’s Cuba opening — restoring full diplomatic relations with Havana and ending the wet foot/dry foot policy.

Two: Even without Trump administration restrictions on business with Cuban military-run industries, tourism to the island will be hamstrung as long as Cuban-Americans feel unwelcome.

By that, I mean diplomatic and international law-sanctioned discrimination against people born in Cuba. Such as when a cruise line offers trips to the island, except if you were born in Cuba you can’t disembark. Or when the crew of an airliner can’t get beyond the tarmac at José Martí International if they were born in Cuba.

Yes, it’s all cloaked in international legal requirements for special passports and visas. But for Cuban-Americans, it’s a simple concept: A U.S. passport should be respected regardless of whether the holder was born in Oriente or Oregon.

Last Friday at La Carreta restaurant in Miami, for instance, I met Gustavo Roca, who was selling copies of his book “La Habana Esplenderosa.” Roca was a Cuban emigré living in New York at the time of the Cuban Revolution. He returned to Cuba, inspired by the depictions of Fidel Castro as a Robin Hood in New York Times articles by Herbert Matthews.

Back in Cuba, Roca wrote for Prensa Latina news service and the newspaper aimed at younger Cubans, Juventud Rebelde. Eventually, like a million others, he came to see the revolution was no Sherwood Forest and fled to America.

Decades later, Roca’s Brooklyn-born son traveled to Havana. But he was stopped at the airport and forced to return to the U.S. because, Roca said, Cuban officials insisted his son needed a Cuban passport.

“I’m in favor of everything that is in the best interests of Cuba and Cubans,” said Roca. “But the (Castro regime) makes up laws, and then they change them 24 hours later. They can do whatever they want. I know it’s like that because I lived it.”

It’s a widely held belief.

It’s one reason that travel to Cuba from the United States — though it has grown exponentially — has not mushroomed like some expected. Just this year, three airlines — Frontier, Spirit and Silver — have canceled Cuba routes citing “overcapacity” — not enough people filling the many planes flying.

One reason that’s the case is Cuban-Americans, feeling slighted by the Cuban government, aren’t traveling there. Cuban-Americans could be to Cuba what Florida residents are to Disney: repeat visitors. And ones willing to invest in second homes.

Roca reminds non-Cuban U.S. citizens to be wary, noting the real reason for the embargo was the taking of

U.S. assets without compensation. “When you consider the history, really, what does any American have to expect in terms of a guarantee?” he said.

And, many Cuban-Americans still believe, even less so them.