Travel companies seek alternative to U.S.-Cuba exchange

[Osolomia]

Posted 1/26/2004 1:36 PM

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — January is usually a busy month for agencies licensed to send Americans to sunny Cuba. But this year is different.

The Bush administration has eliminated cultural exchange licenses that allowed just about any American to travel to the communist island nation, which has been subject to a U.S. trade embargo for more than four decades since Fidel Castro seized power.

These so-called "people-to-people" licenses were intended to let Cubans and Americans learn more about each other, but officials said the exchanges had become little more than thinly veiled tourism. Supporters of the program said President Bush had it abolished to shore up votes from anti-Castro Cubans in the election battleground state of Florida.

... But the cultural exchange program offered the only option for many Americans to visit Cuba, said Merri Ansara, director of Common Ground Education & Travel of Cambridge.

"It was the only way ordinary people could go who simply wanted to learn more about Cuba, about the embargo, about the situation," she said.

"It was creating dialogue," added Common Ground marketing coordinator Laura Sitkin. "The dialogue was changing American policy."

More...
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2004-01-26-cuba_x.htm

[Osolomia]

1. "The dialogue was changing American policy."

Is that why all the leading 2004 Democratic presidential candidates want to keep you travel banned?

[Mika]

4. YES

"Is that why all the leading 2004 Democratic presidential candidates want to keep you travel banned?"



Yes.

If we end the sanctions, we end the Dem & Repug pandering for dollars from Miamicuban fanatics.


www.opensecrets.org

[Osolomia]

5. Despite the will of the majority across the country, for the sake of what?

Democrats try to economically cripple a country of 11 million people for the sake of a few votes from the Miami mafia?

Editorials on U.S.-Cuba Policy 2001-2003
http://www.lawg.org/countries/Cuba/editorials.htm

Senate Vote to End Travel Ban October 23, 2003
http://www.lawg.org/countries/Cuba/senate-votes.htm

House Vote to End Travel Ban September 10, 2003
http://www.lawg.org/countries/Cuba/vote-counts-flake.htm

Poll of Cuban-Americans v. non-Cuban-Americans (in Dade County) on various policies:
http://www.fiu.edu/orgs/ipor/cuba2000/3samples.htm

A recent Miami Herald poll on Cuba:
http://www.miami.com/multimedia/miami/news/archive/cubanpoll.pdf

Various polls concerning ending the embargo and establishing diplomatic ties: http://www.pollingreport.com/cuba.htm

[Mika]

6. Majority? Piss on em. Its about money and WINNING money - at all costs

Democracy be damned.


Congresscritters can go to Cuba. They can buy and smoke Cuban cigars too. They granted themselves this special right. Like they granted themselves health care. Piss on us citizens. The rest of us are ignored, abused, exploited, trampled on, all the while we pay the fee for the professional politicians perks and priveleges and suffer the cost of this failed 44 year old policy against Cuba and Americans.

[Osolomia]

2. Whether biased Dems like the news or not

Tuesday, January 27, 2004
By CARLOS VILLATORO
Register Staff Writer

A Napa Valley College photography class was bound to get some negatives from its trip to Cuba this month, but the students didn't know that the start of the journey would be one of them.

Ron Rogers, head of Napa Valley College's art department, and Ron Zak, a part-time instructor, took 28 students from San Francisco to Miami on Dec. 27, with plans to fly to Havana the next day. But their travel plans stalled for two days in Florida as federal authorities refused to give them the green light to go on their way. It took intervention from the office of Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and NVC authorities before the class was allowed to take off for Cuba.

... "A U.S. Customs official hit a girl with a barrage of rapid-fire questions," Rogers said. "He was there to challenge and rattle and intimidate her."

The agent refused to believe that the students were on an educational trip, and wouldn't acknowledge their identification even though they brought passports and had permission to travel to Cuba, Rogers said.

.... Diehm said the problem boiled down to a failure to communicate between OFAC and Customs. On Dec. 29, aides to Thompson called the two agencies and got the ball rolling.

... ... "It was a once in a lifetime experience," Alosi said. "I hope to go back."

More...
http://www.napanews.com/templates/index.cfm?template=story_full&id=572B7B3B-70CD-4ABA-836C-A004CCF9C083

[Judi Lynn]

7. Really glad this group got past the Miami customs roadblocks

Reading about their final success was refreshing. I'm sure the Miami Customs officer has orders to prevent EVERYONE other than Cuban "exiles" and their progeny getting on those planes to Cuba.

Time to cut this travel ban loose, just as the Senate and House of Representatives voted in 2003, before _Bush and the Cuban American National Foundation overrode the will of the majority by having everyrone's wishes, the end to the travel ban in ammendment, sabotaged in committee, behind everyone's backs.

[Osolomia]

3. With so many "Castro apologists" popping up each day

what's a biased DUer to do!

Off to Cuba
27 January 2004

The USC baseball team competes in Cuba for three exhibition games, giving players a cultural experience and many memories.

By KIM SIM
Assistant Sports Editor

Three games in five days, on a field 3,000 miles away, in a country that has been designated as off-limits to the average American.

Call it an experience of a lifetime for the USC baseball team, which left Friday morning for Cuba, where it will play three exhibition games.

... The team and its entourage of coaches, family members, alumni and fans were cleared by the U.S. Treasury Department, which issued the travel licenses.

... Gillespie and other coordinators went to Havana in July to arrange the exhibition games.

"It was a real eye opener," Gillespie said of that visit. "I think it's a great opportunity for all of us ... to have an opportunity to interface with those people, see their community."

More...
http://www.dailytrojan.com/article.do?issue=/V151/N09&id=01-cuba.09s.html