The U.S. embargo of Cuba hasn’t worked, according to Cuban American filmmaker Luis Moro. And while for the most part Americans aren’t allowed to set foot on the island, Moro went to Cuba to make a movie precisely on this premise.

Now he’s being investigated by the U.S. government and fined:

The film, linked as it is to Moro’s personal crusade against the U.S. embargo, led U.S. officials to investigate Moro for possible violation of U.S. laws that make it almost impossible for most Americans to legally visit communist Cuba.

If officials act against him, Moro says he will refuse to pay any fines, even if it means jail time.

“It’s a farce — the embargo has not worked, and it is not going to work,” Moro said of the policy imposed since the early 1960s. “I’m committed to fighting this to the end.”

Moro, who left Cuba with his mother at the age of 5, says his campaign doesn’t mean he favors the Cuban government or its leader
Fidel Castro.

“I’m not pro-Castro. I’m anti-embargo,” he said by telephone from Los Angeles.

I haven’t seen the film, but Moro’s stance — not pro-Castro but anti-embargo — seems to be one that is less represented in conversations about the Cuba-U.S. relations. Getting away from the whole “you’re either with us or against us” mentality sounds like a refreshing way of looking at this decades-old issue.

Moro has been defiant of the U.S. government’s requests for details of his stay in Cuba:

Days after the movie was shown at the American Black Film Festival in Miami Beach in July, the U.S. Department of the Treasury notified Moro his trip to Cuba was being investigated.

Moro said he refused the department’s request for details about his travels, saying he has the right to travel freely.

Via / Yahoo! Entertainment

Photo via morofilms.com