U.S. boosts sanction enforcement, searches more travelers to Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. boosts sanction enforcement, searches more travelers to Cuba


Rafael Lorente
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Dec. 6, 2003 12:00 AM


WASHINGTON - President Bush's October call for more rigorous enforcement of sanctions against Cuba has led to an increase in searches of people traveling to and from the island, the Housing and Urban Development secretary said Friday.

Mel Martinez, who will quit his post next week to run for the U.S. Senate from Florida, is co-chairman of President Bush's commission on a transition to democracy in Cuba with Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The group, which includes representatives from the Treasury Department and other federal agencies, met for the first time Friday morning. The one-hour meeting included comments by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

"The commission is only part of our policy," said Roger Noriega, assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs.

"Our efforts to enforce restrictions on financial transactions that benefit the regime have been stepped up significantly since the president's speech."

Noriega said before Bush's Oct. 10 speech that about 5 percent of passengers on one flight to Havana per month were scrutinized or searched. Now, he said, it is 100 percent of passengers on every flight. (snip/...)

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1206us-cuba06.html

[Ellen Forradalom]

1. Priorities, priorities

Since so many terrorists are travelling to and from Cuba....NOT.

[Mika]

2. A majority of the US travellers TO Cuba are Cuban-Americans

Well over 100,000 Cuban-Americans (and Cuban "exiles") travel to Cuba legally every year.

Now, 100% of them are being scrutinized when they go to Cuba now.. and they are NOT too pleased about it in Miami because this means thay they can't violate the US rules any more, as so many had in the past (by going to Cuba more than once a year, and taking undeclared cash with them, etc).

[Mika]

3. The real political opposition parties in Cuba call for an end to the ban

Leading Human Rights Activists in Cuba Announce Support for Legislation Ending Travel Ban
http://ciponline.org/cuba/SenHouTravelBill.htm

Washington, D.C. - Two of Cuba's leading human rights activists, Elizardo Sanchez and Vladimiro Roca, expressed their "full support" for legislation introduced in the United States Congress that repeals the ban on legal travel by Americans to Cuba.

The world-renowned political dissidents were contacted by the Center for International Policy (CIP) on May 12th, and authorized CIP to release their comments publicly in the United States.

"Just as we insist on the right of Cubans to travel, to leave and return to our country freely, a right now denied us," they said, "so too do we support the right of Americans to travel freely, including travel to Cuba."

[akitamata]

4. Imagine

the European Union searching travelers to the USA and punishing them for financially supporting an undesireable regime. I will begin lobbying and writing to my European Parliament representatives to urge just such action. (Not really, but I find this stance so ludicrous as to warrant a tit for tat approach. Grow up Cuba haters, the Revolution remains one of the finest human achievements in your hemisphere.