Originally Posted by
ermintrude
How can one "support the Cuban people" - volunteer work?? I'm trying to advise someone who is both a french and US citizen who was unaware of the US requirements (they live in France) and is scheduled to fly out on Monday US to HAV.
EDIT: Just googling - I found the following:
-Visiting museums and historical sites
-Volunteering with local organizations
-Eating in locally owned restaurants
-Learning to cook Cuban food
-Taking dance lessons
-Touring a tobacco farm and learning how to roll cigars
Is the above really valid?? people are paying $4K for tours when they can just do the above??
Google for the official OFAC categories. You will see that, while the "people to people /educational" category has specific examples, the "Support" category is really not defined well. And until OFAC audits a number of people's itineraries, or the category is more clearly defined in the new guidelines, it is really not possible to comment accurately on your examples above. They do, however, to my eye, fit more into the "People to People/Educational category" than the "Support" category. Visiting a state owned and run museum, for example, does not support individual Cuban citizens to be independent of the goernment. These (above) all seem to be untested/unaudited examples random visitors have decided fit P2P, perhaps based on tour group itineraries they have seen.
For the interim, I personally would define "Support" as anything that puts money into the pocket of a Cuban citizen and/or any conversation/relationship with Cubans that advances entrepreneurship and freedom of action.
The value of the tours is that they have relationships already set up with artists, farmers, teachers of various arts classes, professors, etc. That is what you are paying for., IMO. Making the contacts needed to set this kind of stuff up on your own is difficult and time consuming, and likely impossible to do from off the island. There are so-called "marketplaces" popping up online recently to help with this need for contacts, but most are US based and therefore may not fit the support of CUBAN people wording.
Right now, all your friends can do is try to follow the best of their own thinking as to what qualifies, do not ever utter the word "tourism", keep "proof" for 5 years as required, and hope that no one resident outside the US will ever get audited.