My first venture to Cuba took place in September of 1993, when I traveled to Havana and then on to the cities like Matanzas and Pinar del Río. The official invitation had come as a result of many trips to Washington, D.C., to meet with “Ambassador” Miguel Nunez. He really wasn’t an ambassador, because there is no formal relationship between Cuba and the USA. The US had imposed a very strict embargo around Cuba, and all my dealings with the Cubans had to be conducted at the Swiss embassy, located at 2630 16th Street, NW, in Washington, D.C. The Swiss had established a “Cuban Interests Section” and allowed Cuban officials to use a part of their gorgeous embassy to conduct business.
Miguel Nunez became a very good friend of mine, and at one point, I was even able to talk the State Department into allowing him to travel to Colorado and stay with Anna Marie and me at our home in Evergreen. I’ll never forget how captivated Miguel was with Colorado when I drove him to a spot near Evergreen to view a herd of live, roaming buffalo. He had always wanted to see a bison and had read of the wild adventures of Buffalo Bill whose gravesite overlooks the eastern plains of Colorado and the city of Denver from Lookout Mountain near our home.
My cordial relationship with the “Cuban Interests Section” at the Swiss Embassy in Washington DC had paid great dividends. I was eventually allowed permission to travel directly from Miami to Havana.
As you might imagine, there was no such thing as regularly scheduled flights from US to Cuba in the early 1990s. So, if you were intent on arriving in Cuba and didn’t want to swim the distance, the other option was to make arrangements with a risky and unreliable charter outfit using ad hoc pieces of international flying equipment and adventurous crews. The flights would always be packed full with the strangest looking sights imaginable. Most of the folks traveling would be immediate family members of Cuban residents. Each of those passengers would be restricted to one piece of luggage. But how do you take to Cuba all the things you want to take to Cuba in one small piece of luggage? You wear it!
The passengers would board wearing several suits of clothes or dresses in layers. They would show up with four or five hats stacked on their heads, one on top of the other. Every set of garments had at least a thousand pockets stuffed with every item conceivable.
The ticketing and boarding process was absolutely crazy. Hopeful passengers were instructed to arrive at least four or five hours before suggested departure time. We were required to sign numerous forms and agreements and eventually we would make our way to the line where “cash only” payment in US dollars would be rendered in exchange for a hand-written ticket and boarding pass.
The Embargo that had been imposed on Cuba by the United States was very restrictive and had mostly banned all commerce and economic transactions between the two countries. The issuing of Visas, for the most part, had been suspended. Mexico and Canada had continued relationships with Castro’s Cuba and international relationships still existed between those countries and Cuba.
I smile to myself when I recall my first flight from US to Cuba. When the plane dropped down low enough for the landing procedure, I could see the green countryside surrounding Havana. Everything was so grown over and run down! The runway landing lights were all wired on either side of the runway with extension cord wires running on top of the runway. When the planes came across the runway, they had to run right over the top of the heavy black extension cords. Cords exposed to the sun, rain, and plane wheels had to be a bad mode of operation. All along the runway to the terminal there were old US and Russian planes torn apart and inoperable. Somehow, I wasn’t really surprised when I spotted two air taxi planes that were old WWI surplus bi-planes.
My various trips to Havana had been very successful. Fortunate for me, I had always been able to find a way to get boxes of medical goods approved to take with me. Sometimes that necessitated working through a family named Issacs who lived in Canada and loved Project C.U.R.E. At any rate, the Good Lord had always made a way for me to take lots of medical supplies with me to distribute as gifts in places like the Calixto García hospital in downtown Havana.
The policy of Cuba was to retain all medical donations at the port of entry until the next day so they would have a chance to check for expiration dates and undesirable goods shipped in. The excuse they used was that since they were responsible for all illnesses of the people of Cuba, they would be responsible to treat any people who would get sick as a result of restricted drugs.
I had a feeling that the true motive was once they got their hands on the medical goods, they put them in their own warehouse, and then the government distributed them, rather than the donor having any knowledge of or connection with the recipient of the gift. That way, the recipient would think that the government was the entity responsible for the gift, thereby keeping the ill recipient looking to the all-giving government for answers. It was a means of control.
I protested and said that we had to have the goods returned to us, since they were designated gifts, and we were in Cuba to take pictures of the gifts as they were being donated to the Cuban recipients. They agreed that as soon as they checked the medical supplies they would, in this case, be turned back over to us the next day. Time would tell. But I had determined that if they “appropriated” the goods, then Project C.U.R.E. would not send more.
On those trips, I was introduced to many government officials and health-ministry leaders, and even the president of Cuba’s chamber of commerce, Carlos Martinez Salsamendi. You can only imagine the interesting clandestine talks I was able to have with them regarding their severe shortages of everything and the possibilities of eventually establishing a free-market system once again on their island nation.
On my trips I began realizing the true plight of Cuba’s health situation. They simply needed everything! But Project C.U.R.E. could never begin to supply that need by just bringing a few boxes of medical things along on the trips. We needed to be sending ocean-going cargo containers from our Project C.U.R.E. warehouses. But that would require shipping licenses. Those licenses were not available because of the strict Embargo on Cuba that had been imposed.
Some folks have referred to Project C.U.R.E. as a “miracle organization”. What I can attest to is that we have certainly been a part of a large number of “divinely appointed happenings”. Being able to acquire a valid shipping license so that we could ship medical goods directly into “Embargo Restricted Cuba” from USA certainly qualifies as such a divine happening!
The Project C.U.R.E.–Cuban relationship had matured to a point where I began petitioning the US Commerce Department and the State Department to grant me a license to export medical goods directly from the US to Cuba. As far as I know, I was the first, or one of the first, to ever receive such a license. That greatly impressed the Cubans. From that time on, Dr. Enrique Comendeiro Hernandez, the minister of health, began addressing all letters and fax messages to me as “the Distinguished Dr. Jackson.” I’ve enjoyed a fun and very special relationship with the Cubans.
I would like to share a copy or that unique license #D216884, validated March 1, 1995, with you here:
