Two Florida members of Congress are threatening to push for economic sanctions against the Bahamas that could affect its tourism industry if island officials do not free two Cuban dentists who have been in immigration detention there for 10 months.
U.S. Republican Reps. Connie Mack and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said Thursday they may ask the federal government to take a number of steps to pressure the Bahamas. Criticism of the Bahamas has increased since a Spanish-language TV journalist was allegedly beaten by a jail guard earlier this month after he interviewed Cuban migrants detained at the Immigration Detention Center on Carmichael Road in Nassau.
“You’ve left us no choice. Congress must now consider every available consequence,” said Mack, a member of the House International Relations Committee.
Mack said options on the table include “rethinking the existing U.S. preclearance customs policy, congressional hearings that [would] reexamine the relationship between the U.S. and the Bahamas, and . . . other measures that could reduce our economic support of the Bahamas.”
In a statement, the Bahamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded that the island government “cannot be drawn into the rhetorical war of words between members of the legislative branch in the United States and the Cuban government on migration issues.” It pledged to “resolve this matter” according to international law and migration accords between Cuba and the Bahamas.
Cuban dentists David Gonzalez-Mejias and Marialys Darias-Mesa have been in the Bahamas for 10 months, despite having received permission to migrate legally to the United States, Mack said.
Mack, Ros-Lehtinen, and other U.S. representatives and senators, say the Bahamas is caving in to pressure from Cuban leader Fidel Castro by detaining the dentists.
Ros-Lehtinen explained that only five countries have preclearance authority.
“If the United States were to yank the preclearance designation, then passengers would have to pay a heavier tax on destination charges and the deboarding of passengers from the cruise ship into the Bahamas would take longer,” she said. “Some tourists and cruise lines would rethink having Bahamas as their destination.”
Nearly 6 percent of cruise itineraries worldwide include stops in the Bahamas, according to the Cruise Lines International Association representing travel agencies.
Despite the political tough talk of sanctions, a cruise-industry official said any change in the preclearance policy should not adversely affect passengers. Christine Fischer, spokeswoman for the International Council of Cruise Lines, an Arlington, Va., trade group, said cruise-ship passengers don’t go through customs at ports of call in the Bahamas. Rather, they go through customs upon their reentry into the United States.
Family members of the two dentists said they just want to reunite with their loved ones as soon as possible. Ihovany Hern�ndez, husband of Darias-Mesa, broke down crying during a news conference with Mack and Ros-Lehtinen in Miami. “I’ve lived with uncertainty these 10 months,” said Hern�ndez. “I’ve been to the Bahamas 19 times. My wife has been mistreated psychologically.”
Dayami Inda, the wife of Gonzalez-Mejias, said the Bahamas shouldn’t send her husband back to Cuba because the communist government would mistreat him. She said their daughter misses her father.
Miami Herald staff writer Amy Martinez contributed to this report.
By OSCAR CORRAL from The Miami Herald
