For starters, new caucus chief Xavier Becerra, California Democrat, took his young daughters along for the ride. That fact alone gives away his lack of intent to dig into the island's critical issues. I doubt he was planning to tote a 20-month-old and a 3-year-old into a political prison, or venture with them into the real and often perilous world of Cuban dissidents.
Their Dec. 5-10 trip was led by a fellow California Democrat, Congressman Esteban Torres, who defended the mission as a fact-finding task to determine the impact of the U.S. embargo.
The trip landed the congressmen in the presence of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro one long night. Torres seized the moment to do some fact-finding.
Let no one say he did not try to uncover human rights abuses. He went straight to the source, looked Castro in the eye and, according to Torres' own account, put this question to the dictator: ``Are you torturing political prisoners?''
To which Castro responded with this news flash: ``No, I don't torture political prisoners.''
Asking Castro if he harasses, jails and tortures his opponents is a little like asking a child, ``You wouldn't want to take this really yucky medicine, would you?''
But Torres has nothing vested in promoting blunt exchanges with Fidel Castro. He stands vigorously and openly against the U.S. embargo. It should be no surprise he returned from this educational trip with an unchanged and unexpanded mind on the subject of Cuba. The extent of his inquiries into human rights abuses are laughable.
Regarding Castro-perpetrated human rights abuses, he told The Herald he ``just didn't see it.'' He also didn't see a significant dissident wave. He called the Cubans critical of Castro ``few and far between.''
I have one question for Mr. Torres: Where did you go, Epcot?
Although the trip was organized and paid for by the Southwest Voter Research Institute, a self-proclaimed pro-democracy group, the congressional delegation missed an important opportunity to promote democracy inside Cuba.
The trip coincides with a time when dissidents are predicting new crackdowns, when pressure has mounted on independent journalists and free thinkers, when refugees are once again trickling out of the island.
Just this week, a few hours after Canada's foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy discussed human rights with Castro in Havana, Cuban police arrested three dissident journalists for attempting to produce independent economic reports and news stories.
If state security can round up three journalists as Cuba and Canada issue a joint communique on human rights, imagine what they can do when no one is watching.
Miami Republicans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart were justifiably outraged by their colleagues' lack of concern for human rights in Cuba. They were so outraged they quit the House Hispanic Caucus.
But in doing so, they left the caucus without Republican representation. And they reduced the number of critical voices that could rise from the inside in future instances. It was a heartfelt reaction, but a hasty one, one that left the caucus a far le ss diverse entity.
It would be a mistake for them or anyone to hold up Torres' trip and his myopia as representative of all official travelers to Cuba. Congressional travel to the island can be relevant. It can bring about change and cast light upon dark corners, but onl y if it is carried out with open eyes, not dreamy eyes.
Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald