Dear Supporters of Cuba Travel, and Friends of
Albert A. Fox, Jr.,
Al Fox and the Alliance for Responsible Cuba
Policy (a 501-c-3 nonprofit organization) need our help!
Please
send your contributions to:
Albert A
Fox Jr./Alliance Legal Defense Fund
c/o Law
Office of Arthur Heitzer
633 W.
Wisconsin Ave Suite 1410
Milwaukee
WI 53203
PayPal and Credit Card donations via PayPal
online can be sent to: alfoxallianceLDF@gmail.com
In 2000, Al founded the Alliance for Responsible
Cuba Policy Foundation. Ever since then, the Treasury Department’s Office of
Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has been "investigating" Al and the
Alliance, and now they’re taking things to the next level.
Last May, OFAC contacted Al at the Alliance office
with a demand to pay $100,000. According to OFAC, Al and the Alliance are
guilty of “Trading with the Enemy.”
But what exactly did they do?
According to OFAC, Al and the Alliance should be
fined $100,000 because of two trips to Cuba in 2010 and 2011. Each trip lasted
three days, and each helped build bonds of goodwill between the U.S. and Cuba –
the first one started dialogue between the U.S. and Cuban oil drillers, the
second one put civic leaders from Tampa, FL in touch with counterparts in Cuba.
(The first trip actually helped bring about an unprecedented joint accord
between the U.S. and Cuba to protect the Gulf of Mexico from environmental
disasters.) Al didn’t make any money from either of these trips. He just wanted
positive, humanitarian ties between our two countries. But OFAC says Al
provided “unlicensed travel services” by helping to organize people to go on
these trips. We’re fighting that on the legal front – which is why you’re
getting this letter – and the specifics are complicated. But in a nutshell,
OFAC is selectively relying on disputed technicalities.
So what did Al as head of the Alliance really do?
Fifteen years ago Al realized what President
Obama made official just last year: U.S. policy toward Cuba had to change. So
Al moved back to his hometown of Tampa after 40 distinguished years in
Washington, D.C. and got to work making a difference. As head of the Alliance,
he lobbied for a different attitude in Tampa than the destructive one that held
sway in Miami. He even ran for Congress on a message of U.S.-Cuba reconciliation.
And along the way he made plenty of enemies among those who are against U.S. Cuba normalization. Now that so much
of what Al has worked for is coming to pass, they seem to want payback.
This is OFAC’s first such prosecution for Cuba
travel since 2007. During that time, hundreds of thousands of Americans have
traveled to Cuba, spent money in Cuba, and done business in Cuba and OFAC has
not similarly prosecuted them. But it seems that the rules are different for Al
because he did the one thing that anti-Cuba crowd can’t stand: he challenged
the status quo.
Al and the Alliance now face the unlimited
resources of the federal government as OFAC pursues its selective prosecution. It’s
a David and Goliath contest, and without your help they could be in real
trouble.
Please contribute to the legal defense fund so
that Al and the Alliance's legal team will have the resources they need to
win!
Most appreciatively,
Dr. Wayne Smith, Honorary Chairman; Former Chief
of U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba
Hon. Dennis DeConcini, United States Senator
(ret.)
Hon. Joe Stewart, former Secretary of the United
States Senate
Hon. David A. Straz, Jr., Philanthropist
Dr.
Edwardo Garcia D.V.M.
Antonio
Martinez, Esq.
Albert A
Fox Jr./Alliance Legal Defense Fund
c/o Law
Office of Arthur Heitzer
633 W.
Wisconsin Ave Suite 1410
Milwaukee
WI 53203
PayPal and Credit Card donations via PayPal
online can be sent to: alfoxallianceLDF@gmail.com
Questions/media
please email alfoxallianceLDF@gmail.com
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