Senate rejects attempt to ease Cuba travel

[deminks]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050630/pl_nm/cuba_usa_travel_dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected a proposal to ease American travel restrictions to Cuba that would have allowed a Cuban-American veteran of the Iraq war to visit his ill son.

A majority of senators supported the idea to open travel to Cuba when humanitarian concerns were at play, voting 60-35 for the measure, but under a Senate agreement, two-thirds of senators, or 67, were needed to win passage of the measure.

Last year, the Bush administration tightened rules on travel to Cuba, allowing people to visit from the United States once every three years instead of annually. The move was meant to cut U.S. dollars being spent in Cuba, which has been subjected to U.S. economic sanctions for more than 40 years.

Before his amendment was defeated, Dorgan said the opposition was "all about Florida politics. Everybody in this chamber knows it."

(end snip)

[wakeme2008]

1. A BIG KERRY MISTAKE

Almost ALL FLORIDA CUBANS do not like Bush's one trip every 3 years and would love to go back to Clinton's rule of one trip a year.

IMHO,,, I kept waiting for Kerry to make this an issue in Florida and he never did... I believe more of the Cuban vote would have gone to Kerry had he pushed this. Would it have won Florida, probably not, but it was one group Kerry missed one. IMHO.

[Say_What]

11. I agree with that. Kerry was more interested in pandering to the RW

exiles than to the majority of MiamiCubans. It's pretty scary how much power the RW Gusanos have. Whose country is this anyway?

:wtf:

[Cha]

2. Mustn't get to close to those

Commies!

I would love to go to Cuba one day.

[life_long_dem]

3. What about COMMUNIST CHINA ?

Can a U.S. citizen travel to China? It's not like Cuba is going to take over our country like China could possibally do. Oh yeah, I forgot CHINA-MART is a big * supporter.

Words can't describe how I feel about this admin, but I get a terrible headache evey time I hear someone defending their actions.

Peace......

[Skip Intro]

4. If I'm a free man, why can't I go where the hell I want to go?

If its because Cuba is a threat or something, then why allow travel at all?

Its bullshit.

[IndianaGreen]

15. It could also be that you are not as free as you once thought

Only totalitarian regimes are the ones that fear their own population. It is not an accident that totalitarian China and Bush's America are trying to restrict access to the internet by their respective populations.

[Robeson]

5. Must . Keep . Cold . War . Alive....

...besides, with everything else tanking for Bushco, there's always the Communist Card to fall back on. And Capitalist love that Commie Card, like a duck loves water...

[Say_What]

6. ROBERT F. KENNEDY URGED LIFTING TRAVEL BAN TO CUBA IN '63

<clips>

Washington D.C. June 29, 2005 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sought to lift the ban on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba in December 1963, according to declassified records posted today by the National Security Archive. In a December 12, 1963, memorandum to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Kennedy urged a quick decision "to withdraw the existing regulation prohibiting such trips."

Kennedy's memo, written less than a month after his brother's assassination in Dallas, communicated his position that the travel ban imposed by the Kennedy administration was a violation of American freedoms and impractical in terms of law enforcement. Among his "principal arguments" for removing the restrictions on travel to Cuba was that freedom to travel "is more consistent with our views as a free society and would contrast with such things as the Berlin Wall and Communist controls on such travel."


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3982392

[Starbucks Anarchist]

7. I think I've heard of a loophole.

I remember hearing something about the actual flight paths -- like you can't travel directly from America to Cuba (for non-humanitarian reasons), but you can travel from America to Mexico, for example, and then you can fly to Cuba.

Is this true or just an urban legend?

[Say_What]

8. You can fly though a third country and the Cubans don't stamp

US passports, but now some airlines are *sharing* info with the government. Also, I've heard US customs watch people coming off flights from Cuba. You can find a lot out about it if you search the web a little. Just recently there were a couple of cases where US citizens were fined for going to Cuba.

[cire4]

12. It's true IF there is no re-entry passport stamp....

If you can avoid getting your passport stamped by Mexican immigration officials on re-entry (from Cuba), then it is possible to go via Mexico. And that usually takes a bribe...

But like Say_What mentioned, some airlines that fly to Havana are sharing info with the US government. So, unless you can somehow travel on a fake name, it is very very very tough to get to Cuba.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

13. I see.

Thanks for the help, guys. I swear, I learn something new every day on DU.

[Say_What]

9. Please sign the petition on Cuba travel

For the past 5 years the House of Representatives has voted to end the ban on travel to Cuba. Each year, the bill is changed behind closed doors and the Cuba provision gets taken out. This is partly so that President Bush won't have to make a tough decision about signing or vetoing. As citizens, we're tired of this subversion of democracy.

Below you'll find a petition to U.S. lawmakers on Cuba travel policy. It demands that after they pass the amendments to end the travel ban, the bill must reach the President without changes. We'll be delivering it twice: once before the votes happen in the summer (this is soon, so act now!) and again in the fall, when they usually try to take the amendments out.

The more people we have on the petition at each stage, the more impact the petition will have. So...recruit all your friends, colleagues, and family to sign!

http://www.lawg.org/tools/petition.htm

[VegasWolf]

10. Gotta keep those old hardliner Cubans in Florida happy. nt

[IndianaGreen]

14. We don't want Americans to find the truth about Cuba

We want Americans to remain ignorant of the world around them. If they need to know something about a foreign country, our glorious free press will be more than happy to give them the "official version" of history.

The pages of Cuban history are full of examples of US intervening in that nation, and sometimes using force to protect US business interests. Don't you know that the purpose of our military is to enslave other nations?