South Florida sees upswing in family trips to Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Wednesday, 09.09.09
South Florida sees upswing in family trips to Cuba
South Florida has seen a surge in trips to Cuba as new U.S. policies toward Havana take shape.

BY ALFONSO CHARDY AND RUI FERREIRA
[e-mail]

Nildo Herrera drew the stares of fellow passengers and airline ticket agents as he checked into his recent Havana flight at Miami International Airport wearing five hats, one atop another.

``One is for my grandson, another for my son and the rest for other relatives,'' the smiling 75-year-old Hialeah resident explained to a bemused Vivian Mannerud, a local Cuba travel industry executive handling his boarding.

Herrera was one of the thousands of travelers who swarm MIA's Concourse F pushing carts precariously loaded with mountains of suitcases and duffel bags, all tightly wrapped in blue plastic, as they inch their way to ticket counters to pick up boarding passes for Cuba flights.

The scenes are reminiscent of the days when MIA filled up with tens of thousands of exiles on early family-reunification flights in the late 1970s and early '80s. Family travel gradually dwindled as U.S.-Cuba relations cooled.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1224032.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Amnesty urges Obama not to renew "immoral" sanctions against Cuba

Amnesty urges Obama not to renew "immoral" sanctions against Cuba
UK News
Sep 2, 2009, 11:18 GMT

London - Amnesty International Wednesday urged US President Barack Obama to refrain from renewing US sanctions against Cuba when the measures come under review later this month.

In a statement issued in London, Amnesty said the sanctions renewal date of September 14 presented a 'perfect opportunity' for Obama to 'distance himself from the failed policies of the past' and to send a strong message to the US Congress on the need to end the embargo.

Amnesty International's call is part of a report published Wednesday which examines the impact of the 1962 US economic embargo against Cuba.

'The US embargo against Cuba is immoral and should be lifted,' said Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary-general.

'It's preventing millions of Cubans from benefiting from vital medicines and medical equipment essential for their health.'

The report said the sanctions had a particularly detrimental effect on the human and economic rights of Cubans as they restricted their access to medicines and medical technologies.

The sanctions were also limiting other imports and placed a restriction on travel and money transfers.

Products patented in the USA or containing more than 20 percent US-manufactured parts or components cannot be exported to Cuba, even if they are produced in third countries.

According to data from the United Nations, Cuba's inability to import nutritional products
for consumption at schools, hospitals and day care centres, was contributing to a high prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia, said the Amnesty report.

More:
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/uk/news/article_1498793.php/Amnesty-urges-Obama-not-to-renew-immoral-sanctions-against-Cuba
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[Judi Lynn]

2. Commentary: Our grudge with Cuba needs to end

Commentary: Our grudge with Cuba needs to end
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Published: Tue, Sep. 08, 2009 02:58PM Modified Wed, Sep. 09, 2009 06:41AM


Dwight Eisenhower was president when the United States first devised plans for an embargo against the small island nation of Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

Nine presidents later, this country has begun to take baby steps toward correcting an economic policy toward Fidel Castro's government that has been ineffective at best and, by many accounts, a total failure.

In the beginning, as Cuban exiles flooded to U.S. shores and the revolutionary government took over the assets of American companies there, it perhaps made sense that trade embargos were appropriate tools to put pressure on a regime that had embraced communism and had begun to oppress the people it claimed to have liberated.

But as the years passed, and especially after the end of the Cold War, it became fairly obvious that the American boycott of this tiny country was a policy driven more by political allegiance to the anti-Castro Cuban-American community in Florida than a solid foreign policy decision that made sense for either nation.

http://www.newsobserver.com/1573/story/1680220.html