The pros and cons of direct funding

Posted on Wed, Nov. 15, 2006

STRATEGY
The pros and cons of direct funding

There's disagreement in Miami and Washington on whether to send cash
directly to Cuban dissidents.

Juan Carlos Acosta, director of Accion Democratica Cubana, which has
received about $1.5 million from USAID since 2000, said Cuban dissidents
need dollars.

''The opposition there has to eat, live and move around, and buy things.
The stores that sell things for dollars in Cuba have things that I send
from here,'' said Acosta, whose group ships computers, medicine and
other items.

But some nonprofit USAID groups say they oppose sending cash because the
Cuban government would benefit. Cubans must buy from state-run stores
that jack up prices. 'Some say: `Let's send $80 million in aid to Cuba'
-- that's sending it to Fidel,'' said Frank Hernández Trujillo, director
of Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia. Shipping charges have cost nearly
half the $7.4 million his group has received .

Acosta said his group pays about $13 a pound to use professional
smugglers. Shipping to other Caribbean nations costs about $1 a pound,
he said.

Cuban exiles who send medicine and certain foods to their loved ones in
Cuba can pay $12, according to Va Cuba, a South Florida company.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/16014374.htm