Cuba Travel Ban: Is the End in Sight?

[Judi Lynn]

Cuba Travel Ban: Is the End in Sight?
1 day ago

Over a year ago, in a gesture of conciliation, President Barack Obama lifted travel restrictions on Cuban Americans wanting to visit their relatives on the island. Havana lovers, tourists and travel agents looking for fresh markets jumped for joy. Soon we would all be planning holidays in Varadero and Cayo Coco.

Well, if there was ever a thaw, it iced over pretty fast.

Relations between Havana and Washington seemed to have regressed in the past year. Cuba has fallen off the political radar and off the news, not that it was ever a Top 10 item for an Obama administration that has much bigger targets on its wish list.

But quietly, without fanfare, there's been some tilting toward lifting the travel ban entirely and hints that some substantive talks may be going on between the two countries. Little-publicized meetings have taken place in the past few months between high-level officials while working-level talks are continuing on such safe issues as direct-mail service, dealing with hurricanes, fighting drug smuggling and the Gulf oil spill disaster that might spread to the beaches of Cuba's northern coast.

At the same time, both chambers of Congress are seriously considering bipartisan legislation to end the travel ban and loosen some embargo restrictions. But high hopes on anything having to do with Cuba have often been dashed in past decades, so sponsors of the legislation are not making too much noise.

In the Senate, Byron L. Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat who announced he will not run for another term, has been a vigorous champion of the bill and said recently it could pass this year. The measure (S428), which Dorgan and Republican Sen. Michael Enzi of Wyoming introduced in March 2009, has wide support from a variety of groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Farm Bureau Federation and Human Rights Watch.

More:
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/05/23/cuba-travel-ban-is-the-end-in-sight/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Travel to Cuba Legislation Mired by Scandal, Fierce Opposition

Travel to Cuba Legislation Mired by Scandal, Fierce Opposition
Friday 21 May 2010

by: Katya Rodriguez and Carl Patchen | Council on Hemispheric Affairs

In 1963, following heightened tensions in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy imposed the first travel restrictions on American citizens desiring to travel to Cuba. After years of gridlock regarding the subject courtesy of Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and her ideological kinsman from the ultra-conservative Cuban American National Foundation, a growing number of U.S. members of Congress have consistently introduced legislation in an attempt to remove long-held constraints on U.S. citizens’ freedom to travel. Although former Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), among others, nearly managed to muster sufficient forces in Congress to remove the restrictions, these reforms have failed to attract a sufficient number of votes to lift the ban.

In a November 2009 hearing, the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Howard Berman (D-CA), raised important issues regarding the logic behind the travel ban in his opening statement. During the hearing, entitled “Is it Time to Lift the Ban on Travel to Cuba?,” Berman explained, “Americans have the right to travel to Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism…We can go to North Korea, which threatens to destabilize East Asia with its nuclear weapons program. And even during the darkest days of the Cold War, our citizens could visit the Soviet Union.” Berman argued that the U.S.’s current approach toward Cuba has had the effect of undermining ordinary Cubans’ prospects for attaining political and social freedoms. He emphasized that Washington’s policy, which is centered on inhibiting the Castro regime, should be guided by a more constructive compass that helps rather than consciously hurts the Cuban population.

Although support for the normalization of U.S.-Cuban relations has steadily mounted on Capitol Hill, a number of setbacks have limited the goals of Representative Berman and other progressive legislators. Such incidents include the December 2009 detainment and subsequent imprisonment of Alan Gross, an American contractor working in Cuba, and the death by hunger strike of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo in February. These episodes have sparked new rifts in the relationship between Washington and Havana. Deep political divisions and a scandal involving Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY), who has sponsored bills that encourage improved bilateral relations, further complicate already frustrated attempts to reinstate American travel rights to Cuba. In addition to these foothills, the Obama administration was not prepared to use its political capital to scale the peaks of a regional foreign policy issue which has a limited domestic constituency and is fiercely opposed by a relatively small core of zealots, whose detestation of the Castro brothers cannot be exaggerated.

Previous Legislation

In the previous congressional session, Representative Rangel and Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced bills in their respective chambers proposing to end the travel ban. However, neither lawmaker succeeded in passing their bills, which would have appreciably altered the status quo.

More:
http://www.truthout.org/travel-cuba-legislation-mired-scandal-fierce-opposition59745

[Mika]

2. My prediction: Not yet.

I stand by my pro and con political cash cow for political campaigns theory.

Not going to happen. Not until some great upending in Cuba or the US.


:hi:

---

[naaman fletcher]

3. Agreed

It's kind of like the drug war, too many vested interests in the status quo.

[flamingdem]

5. dang it, I hope that they lift the travel ban after midterm elections

... they are close with votes for the latest bill, I think, but not close enough.

[Mika]

6. They've had the votes many times. Then it gets killed in markup.

I don't have the numbers, I think five or six times, I think Judi has articles on this very topic (the killing off of the end of sanctions bills in markup committees).

This is the method that the elected reps can maintain that they are pro or con on Cuba sanctions (whichever yields the most campaign contributions in their district, or out of district) - look at their votes (that never come to any fruition in markup, which means the campaign cash cow continues).

---

[Judi Lynn]

7. Lincoln Diaz-Balart has killed most efforts to remove the travel ban in committee, himself.

I've gathered info. on this since 2000. They're stored in my big computer which is currently sick, waiting to go to the computer hospital!

Lincoln Diaz-Balart is, as you know, GOING AWAY in 2011, and his kid brother who looks like a bowling pin, Mario indicated he'd be stepping up to run for his seat.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Mario_Diaz-Balart,_official_photo_portrait,_color.JPG/180px-Mario_Diaz-Balart,_official_photo_portrait,_color.JPG



Cuban exile Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen next to Colombian Defense Minister,
Juan Manuel Santos, across from Mario and Lincoln-Diaz-Balart. They all
tend to make trips to confer with Uribe and his military, and Santos.



Their aunt Mirta and their cousin Fidelito
with her first husband, Fidel Castro.



Their father Rafael with Rodolfo (l) and Rolando Masferrer Rojas.
Rolando was a Batista serving-Senator, landowner, newspaper
publisher and operator of a death squad named for him,
"Masferrer's Tigers."

Their father was an attorney for United Foods (later known as
Chiquita) and later the Speaker of the Cuban House of
Representatives,and later the Foreign Minister of Cuban bloody
puppet dictator, Fulgencio Batista.

[Billy Burnett]

11. My god, these Diaz Balart bros are sick (I'm including Jose too).

Judi, we were lamenting these congress cretins 10 or so years ago! They're still here. :puke:

[flamingdem]

13. You mean Jose the journalist? nt

[Mika]

18. Yes. Journalist should be in quotations.

He used to work for a local english network affiliate news dept. (In hot competition with hyperbolic Ric Sanchez when Ric was working for local Faux WSVN)

He'd do long and intensive "interviews" with his two brothers regularly (y'know.... access 'n all, wink wink), about the horrors of Castro's Cuba.

Miami TV news is a real hoot.

---

[flamingdem]

23. I did not realize Jose was one of them. Wow. Or that Rick Sanchez worked for

a Fox affiliate? Is that station Fox esque?

I haven't noticed that Jose is right wing but don't see him much on TV.

[Billy Burnett]

24. Didn't Jose form an exploratory committee for a state rep position a few years back?

It didn't pan out as I remember.

Here's a picture of their papa, Rafael, with murderous dictator Batista,




Herederos del horror (Heirs of horror)
http://www.radioguines.icrt.cu/index.php/1ro-de-enero-triunfo-de-la-revolucion-cubana/95-51-anos-de-revolucion-en-cuba/3942-herederos-del-horror


http://translate.google.com/

[flamingdem]

14. Good finds Judy. I'm guessing the father is on the right. Masferrer's Tigers, nice nt

[Judi Lynn]

16. Here's a reference to Masferrer, the one connected to the death squads,

in a book reference which says he was a rich pro-Batista senator who had a death squad of 2,000 torturers, murders, and extortionists, closely associated with Batista's military:

http://books.google.com/books?id=IC5ZjLMOPg0C&pg=PT117&lpg=PT117&dq=Masferrer+Tigers+death+squad&source=bl&ots=v--xtHcDbK&sig=1xvy-66wvOfkFNQWBr1DAG6ns_M&hl=en&ei=42oATIndEMOC8ga8kPWbDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Masferrer%20&f=false

I've heard so many goddawful things about them, including their practise of making people dig their own graves before killing them, and also cutting people in pieces and hanging them in the trees. Oh, also, putting them in thick cloth bags, and setting the bags on fire.

[flamingdem]

4. There is action with the prisoners mediated by the Catholic Church

some to be released (I think) or moved closer to where their families live.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Share24 Travel to Cuba Legislation Mired by Scandal, Fierce Opposition

Share24 Travel to Cuba Legislation Mired by Scandal, Fierce Opposition
Friday 21 May 2010

by: Katya Rodriguez and Carl Patchen | Council on Hemispheric Affairs

In 1963, following heightened tensions in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy imposed the first travel restrictions on American citizens desiring to travel to Cuba. After years of gridlock regarding the subject courtesy of Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and her ideological kinsman from the ultra-conservative Cuban American National Foundation, a growing number of U.S. members of Congress have consistently introduced legislation in an attempt to remove long-held constraints on U.S. citizens’ freedom to travel. Although former Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), among others, nearly managed to muster sufficient forces in Congress to remove the restrictions, these reforms have failed to attract a sufficient number of votes to lift the ban.

In a November 2009 hearing, the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Howard Berman (D-CA), raised important issues regarding the logic behind the travel ban in his opening statement. During the hearing, entitled “Is it Time to Lift the Ban on Travel to Cuba?,” Berman explained, “Americans have the right to travel to Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism…We can go to North Korea, which threatens to destabilize East Asia with its nuclear weapons program. And even during the darkest days of the Cold War, our citizens could visit the Soviet Union.” Berman argued that the U.S.’s current approach toward Cuba has had the effect of undermining ordinary Cubans’ prospects for attaining political and social freedoms. He emphasized that Washington’s policy, which is centered on inhibiting the Castro regime, should be guided by a more constructive compass that helps rather than consciously hurts the Cuban population.

Although support for the normalization of U.S.-Cuban relations has steadily mounted on Capitol Hill, a number of setbacks have limited the goals of Representative Berman and other progressive legislators. Such incidents include the December 2009 detainment and subsequent imprisonment of Alan Gross, an American contractor working in Cuba, and the death by hunger strike of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo in February. These episodes have sparked new rifts in the relationship between Washington and Havana. Deep political divisions and a scandal involving Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY), who has sponsored bills that encourage improved bilateral relations, further complicate already frustrated attempts to reinstate American travel rights to Cuba. In addition to these foothills, the Obama administration was not prepared to use its political capital to scale the peaks of a regional foreign policy issue which has a limited domestic constituency and is fiercely opposed by a relatively small core of zealots, whose detestation of the Castro brothers cannot be exaggerated.

Previous Legislation

In the previous congressional session, Representative Rangel and Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced bills in their respective chambers proposing to end the travel ban. However, neither lawmaker succeeded in passing their bills, which would have appreciably altered the status quo.

More:
http://www.truthout.org/travel-cuba-legislation-mired-scandal-fierce-opposition59745

~~~~~
From August, 2009:

Cuba trade ban stands despite rising efforts to end it
Posted on Saturday, 08.29.09
Cuba trade ban stands despite rising efforts to end it
BY LESLEY CLARK
[e-mail]

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s decision in April to lift the limit on
visits by Cuban Americans to their homeland was seen by some as a sign
that the embargo, centerpiece of U.S. efforts to isolate the island,
might be nearing its final days.

Don’t count on it.

The president can weaken the embargo, but only Congress can rescind it.
Embargo supporters in both houses, including Florida lawmakers from each
party, remain confident they have the votes.

But something more nuanced is happening, a slow erosion:

• Miami Herald reporters visiting the island found that, embargo or no
embargo, huge stockpiles of American-made goods are finding their way to
Cuba — sometimes legally, often not. From sunglasses to jetliners, if
it’s made here, you can probably find it there, although often at an
exorbitant price.

Loopholes carved into the embargo in recent years have helped make the
United States Cuba’s top supplier of food and agricultural products and
its fifth-largest trading partner.

• A persistent campaign by farm-state Republicans and business interests
to junk the embargo has shifted its focus to chipping away at it piece
by piece.

Their probable next target: the rule that prevents Americans not of
Cuban descent from traveling to Cuba as tourists. Longtime opponents of
the embargo have filed three bills this year that would do just that.
Advocates insist the idea has gained traction — and the backing of a
diverse coalition of groups ranging from the American Farm Bureau to the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce to Human Rights Watch.

More:
http://www.cubaverdad.net/weblog/cuba-trade-ban-stands-despite-rising-efforts-to-end-it/

[Mika]

9. Thanks for posting these stories.

Its going to take some great systematic upending for real change to be made.


:hi:

---

[roody]

10. No need to wait. It is easy to go to Cuba.

All you need is your passport and some money.

[flamingdem]

12. Yes BUT most people prefer to avoid the hassle should they be questioned at Customs

and it's not clear that they don't send those letters asking for $7500 now.

I don't know the latest on that.. it's not for the faint of heart to lie to Customs though that is fairly foolproof.

As far as the groups that take you based on your full time profession... way overpriced imo.

[roody]

15. I received a letter after my first visit.

An attorney sent a letter to Treasury telling them to leave me alone. That was years ago, and I went again. They do not want to have a hearing for anyone. They are fishing for people who will roll over and pay some money.

With Pastors for Peace, we told them we had gone to Cuba.

[flamingdem]

17. What happened and what port of entry was it?

I only had problems when I admitted going! All the agents came over to see my license and lecture me about communism.

[roody]

20. Was that the end of it? The hassle and the lecture?

We entered overland on the Texas border---Reynoso.

[flamingdem]

22. Yes. I forgot to say that what they were after were cigars.

They questioned me because my passport had a stamp that Cuba used to give after the bombs in hotels period. It said "bank" in green and would be stamped over on the way out with a plane!

Of course customs figured that out eventually. They don't do that anymore due to complaints by US travelers (Check page 16 if you think you might have one). The first thing they asked me was about cigars. Back then a license would allow $100 worth of cigars or rum. I had all of that and they wanted to know about it but did not ask to see it once I produced the license.

That was the end of it.

[Mika]

19. You went with PfP and then got the letter?

Your comment on fishing for fines I've heard and read before.

:hi:

---

[roody]

21. Yes, after the first trip about 5 years ago.

Then I went again two years later.