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| Caribbean |
| Cuba Sees Drop in Number of U.S. Visitors |
| 2004-01-28 |
| Dreary January is usually a busy month for Americans visiting sunny Cuba as part of a cultural exchange program. But this year is different, as a chill continues between the communist island and the White House. The chill wind has become a leftist rhetorical leitmotif. Maybe they are all just earthworming Chilly Winds by the Partrdge Family The Bush administration has eliminated cultural exchange licenses that allowed just about any American to travel to Cuba, which has been subject to a U.S. trade embargo for more than four decades since Fidel Castro seized power. The Clinton policy pretty much defeated the embargo which fellow travelers refer to as the "blockade," a real misnomer in all senses except that some Cubans actually do have to rifle through garbage and hunt rat meat. These so-called "people-to-people" licenses, introduced in 1999 by the Clinton administration, were intended to let Cubans and Americans learn about each other through educational trips. I think we learned that Cuba was subverting Venezuela, Bolivia and Brazil. We learned enough. But federal officials now say the exchanges had become little more than thinly veiled tourism and eliminated the program. The last licenses expired Dec. 31 and some travel agencies are scrambling to find a legal alternative. I guess their really not buying in to the whole let’s not prop up repressive government idea. Altruism wasn’t doing it for their bottom-line. About 160,000 Americans visited Cuba legally in 2002, the last year for which statistics are available, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Many others travel there illegally by departing from airports outside America, without having their passports stamped by Cuba. I think the illegal traffic was mostly just transit by Castro’s minions and bagmen. Bob Guild, program director for travel service provider Marazul Charters Inc., said the number of Americans traveling to Cuba should be much lower in 2004. His company sent 2,500 people to Cuba in January 2003. This year, Guild said, the numbers are off by 50 percent. He’ll have to raise prices for the remaining Hollywooders engaged in their leftist Haj. "The idea of using individuals’ right to travel as an instrument of foreign policy is not right, it’s not constitutional or moral," Guild said. Let’s create a new right - especially one that compromises our security. "It was creating dialogue," added Common Ground marketing coordinator Laura Sitkin. "The dialogue was changing American policy." The dialog was weakening American policy without curtailing the subversion of Latin America. The policy was surrender. Both houses of Congress voted last year in favor of lifting the Cuba travel ban. But the language of the bill was changed at the last minute because President Bush threatened to use his veto power if the bill was passed with those provisions. Both houses of Congress caved to agricultural lobbiests. The Treasury Department, which stopped issuing people-to-people licenses, argued that Americans weren’t using the cultural exchange program for what it was intended, but rather were just going to vacation on the Caribbean island, according to spokeswoman Tara Bradshaw. "Tourist travel puts hard currency in the hands of Castro and his cronies and does very little to help the Cuban people," said Bradshaw... The Center for Cuban Studies, one of the oldest groups offering cultural exchanges between Cuba and America, has been forced to halt its travel services, said Marcos Meconi, who coordinated Cuba trips for the New York-based center. Good. Global Exchange, based in San Francisco, managed to extend its last trip of 2003 to Cuba into the New Year by combining people-to-people licenses with humanitarian licenses. Found a loophole. Fidel salutes you. "In the end, we feel it’s a lot of bureaucracy, red tape," said Rachel Bruhnke, coordinator for Global Exchange’s Eco-Cuba program. "We feel that the intention of the policy is to keep American people and Cuban people separated." No the intention of the policy is to prevent some US dollars from flowing into a repressive regime that is also engaged in undercutting the US throughout Latin America. Castro doesn’t mind sticking it to us by helping Iraq, Iran or AQ when he can either. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #5 Shipman, if you get a chance, there is a guy, Gustavo Coronel, from Venezuala that is writing some good stuff about the Latin American situation. I read an article, Poor Petroleos de Venezuela, in which he charecterizes a new scam that Chavez is running. He is using the national oil company like an IV bag for social programs to buy votes. His plan is dispicably brilliant. It sort of looks like a mini version of Oil for Food, but Chavez doesn't have a hold on food distribution so his grip may be breakable. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-1-28 8:42:52 PM |
| #4 We don't need to be a society of scruffy dudes hanging by the package store to make five bucks for buying booze for kids that will be alcoholics before they reach legal drinking age. You're right. That's what older brothers are for. Point taken. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-28 6:55:53 PM |
| #3 Shipman, I understand that a percentage of people can and do break the law. My point is that our government does us no good by presenting an incoherent policy with regard to rogue states. Our Cuba policy has been very conflicted allowing Castro to stick it to us repeatedly with the result being instability throughout Latin America. While an embargo that is easily circumvented is not a strong policy, it is better than enagement. The " While we should remain a free-market society, we are better served by maintaining some dicipline with regards to embaros of rougue states. All people should be free; let's make some strides towards being a country of citizens. We don't need to be a society of scruffy dudes hanging by the package store to make five bucks for buying booze for kids that will be alcoholics before they reach legal drinking age. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-1-28 5:25:59 PM |
| #2 Aw nuts, there goes the Spielberg family vacation. |
| Posted by: BH 2004-1-28 4:48:24 PM |
| #1 SH it's 90 miles from KW to Habanna. A private boat can get in and out with no trouble. The Cuban customs people look the other way if they are presented with a US Passport. You don't need a visa... all you need are $ and an appreciation of bonefish. It may not be right... but hey fish are fish. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-28 3:46:14 PM |