Americans flouting U.S. travel ban to see "forbidden fruit" of Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Americans flouting U.S. travel ban to see "forbidden fruit" of Cuba
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/21/07
BY WILL WEISSERT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Barack Obama would lift restrictions on visits by Cuban Americans to the hemisphere's only communist country if elected president.

A growing chorus of Democratic and Republican lawmakers would go even further, loosening the U.S. embargo enough to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba.

But thousands of U.S. tourists already travel to Cuba behind Washington's back, and many say being sneaky is part of the fun.Some are scrambling to get to the island while Fidel Castro is still alive, fearing the U.S. government could scrap the travel ban once he's gone and bring profound change to Cuba.

"The fact that you're not supposed to be there, that was the top for me," said Amit, 29, a New York City native who visited Cuba in September 2006, shortly after the 81-year-old Castro fell ill and ceded power to his younger brother.



Read more: http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071021/LIFE02/710210322/1006/LIFE

[Yael]

1. Meanwhile, that "other" communist country, China,

is our BFF and pouring zillioins into campaign coffers to insure its BFF trade status, and oh yeah, poisoning us with their products.

:woohoo:

[freethought]

2. By making it illegal you only make it more tempting

What a f_____g joke! This embargo and these travel restrictions only serve to make the U.S. look petty and childish.
Why would anyone want to go to Cuba? Some of the most beautiful beaches and Caribbean waters come to mind, that's what. Let's not forget music and architecture. I also understand that some auto enthusiasts would absolutely love to go to Cuba and get there hands on some classic cars that are down there. The Europeans are probably having a great belly laugh at our expense over Cuba.
An old saying says "Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer". Castro is a tyrant but not for one second to I believe he is stupid. If the U.S. really wanted to gain influence in Cuba they should drop the embargo and allow for unrestricted travel. Let the families visit each other. Let the American tourists spend money there. Watch then how fast things change.

[Purveyor]

3. It is absolutely 'bizarre' that a travel ban exists at all. What other countries are 'we' barred

from visiting, I wonder?

[Judi Lynn]

4. The restrictions were relaxed by Jimmy Carter for a couple of years:

The Day the Blockade against Cuba Started

By Mildrey Ponce

January 22, 2007

~snip~
In 1979 the interdiction of U. S. citizens to travel to Cuba was temporally lifted, since President Jimmy Carter did not sign the regulation renewable every six months. The limitation of U.S. dollars Americans could spend in Cuba was also relaxed.

However, the Ronald Reagan administration reinstated the trade “embargo” on April 19, 1982 and the rules for American citizens traveling to Cuba were later modified by the present Cuban Assets Control Regulations.

......

http://www.cubanow.net/global/loader.php?&secc=5&c=2&item=1939

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. I have done it,

and you would have to be pretty stupid to get caught,

[Vogon_Glory]

6. Travel Ban An Unnecessary Restriction on American Liberties

The travel restrictions that the federal government places on American citizens and US residents wishing to visit Cuba are an unnecessary restriction on the freedoms and liberties of free Americans. This is a point that I've made over and over again elsewhere, and it is a point that more and more of us across the political spectrum should be making to our congressional representatives, our Senators, and the people in the Executive Branch. The travel restrictions have done nothing to bring about the end of the Havana regime; their only effects are to break the hearts of emigre Cubans and their loved ones still living in the island and to increase the poverty of Cubans as a whole. I begrudge the federal government's right to restrict travel to enemy countries during actual military hostilities at best, but Cuba poses a minimal threat to the mainland US these days and people who travel to and from the island present far less of a risk than those earnest and bearded young men who jet to and from Pakistan these days. It's time to end the travel restrictions for people wishing to visit Cuba.

A point that ought to be made to the flag-waving, chest-thumping, self-professed "conservative" "patriots" who support continuing the travel restrictions is that yesterday's conservatives would NEVER have stood for such restrictions for Americans wishing to travel to Cuba. They thought, just as many progressives do now, that the US government had no right to dictate what countries they should visit. They would be outraged at not only how supinely their descendants have given in to governmental coercion but that their descendants actually SUPPORT such coercion.

The man in the White House that the right-wing exiles have enthusiastically endorsed and voted into the Executive Office in 2000 has left the federal government's books deep in the red. One of the economies that ought to be made is to repeal the travel restrictions for American citizens and US residents wishing to visit Cuba, and to use the freed-up resources of OFAC for tracing the al Qaeda money trail.

[Vogon_Glory]

7. Just How Popular ARE The Travel Restrictions, Anyway?

I realize that the travel restrictions remain in place because for most voters outside the Cuban exile community, the travel restrictions aren't a front-burner issue. Most voters in south Florida, the Jersey suburbs, or elsewhere in the US don't go to the polls and vote on a candidate because he or she supports or opposes the travel restrictions. They vote on war, crime, infrastructure,economic fears, and other concerns first.

Nevertheless, I wonder. Just how popular ARE the travel restrictions for American citizens and US residents wishing to visit Cuba anyway? Outside of the Cuban exile community, how much of the rest of the electorate supports the restrictions? How much of the rest of the electorate opposes them? Did someone ever run a scientifically accurate poll, and what were the results?

And how much of the rest of the electorate resents the US federal government and elected politicos pandering to the hard-line Cuban exiles by keeping the restrictions in place?

[freethought]

10. Most of the voting public probably does not

even know anything about the kind of influence the hard-line Cuban exiles have. And when you talk about Florida and its significance in domestic political strategy, the politicians are willing to bow to the "Cuban Mafia" or so it is referred to.

And it's not just Cuban exiles, there is also a portion of wealthy American families who still think they own property in Havana or other locations in Cuba. They just haven't been able to visit it since the 1950s.

I don't have any serious or scientific poll data. But I would say this. In a number of articles I have read there's a great deal of curiosity about Cuba as vacation destination. Cuba is an island of limited resources and is not geopolitically significant in any way. So what is exactly the point of keeping the embargo in place after so long. Whose interest does it actually serve?
How's my interest being served by keeping an embargo on Cuba? I don't have any particular ill will to anybody in Cuba. To me the whole issue is childish and makes the U.S. look stupid.
Drop the trade and travel restrictions and you may have better means to affect change in Cuba.

[monktonman]

8. Didnt Rush Limpballs visit Cuba recently? n/t

[Tab]

9. No, I think that was the Honduras.

[monktonman]

13. I keep hearing cuba but whatever.....

[freethought]

11. Wasn't it the Dominican Republic? n/t

[Vogon_Glory]

20. I Believe It Was The Dominican Republic

I believe that the he-diva of the Excrement in Broadcasting Network went to the Dominican Republic. As I recall, his luggage got tossed by Customs and Immigration when he returned to what was once the Land of the Free and supposedly some viagra-like pills were found in his suitcase.

As many of us know, one of the favorite charges that hard-line Cuban exiles like to throw at North American tourists who desire to or have visited Cuba is that they visit Cuba for sexual tourism.

But surely Rush would NEVER visit another country with such lewd intentions. Never. Rush is a Conservative after all. Conservatives are more virtuous than us progressives could ever hope to be. You don't believe me? Ask them; they'll tell you.

Also, Rush IS a Christian.

At least he says so.

And surely we all believe him :sarcasm:

[yellowcanine]

27. Raises a good point. - If the Cuban ban is lifted the resorts in the Dominican Republic and

elsewhere are going to have a tough time competing with Cuba and its many pristine beaches.

[Vogon_Glory]

28. Assumptions, Assumptions, Assumptions

I see you're another believer in the elder Limbaugh brother's virtue. :evilgrin:

Actually, I suspect that Cuba isn't going to fare quite so well in competing with the DR for the Yankee dollah (for what it'll be worth after Buckaroo Bush leaves office and if the American electorate is stupid enough to vote for a Republican successor). The DR has some swankier places and more tourist infrastructure than does present-day Cuba.

Unlike the middle and late 1950's, though, the high-rollers will NOT be heading for Cuba. While I don't believe in dialectical materialism, I think that Castro's early anti-tourist thesis has collided with the outside tourist industry's desire for profits and other Caribbean countries' desire for jobs and income to create some fancy high-end resorts on some islands and lots of middle-class oriented resorts elsewhere. I doubt that those flocks of tourists will be comming back, except for maybe a handful of disappated geriatricks who are curious to see what happened to the hell-raising playgrounds of their youth.

Cuba DOES have some not-bad all-inclusive resorts. I'm not sure as to whether they have all the other goodies like golf courses and tennis courts that other vacationers like. Some of the meals I had there were somewhat depressing; I really don't like all-inclusive resort buffet lines, especially in someplace that has the potential for really good meals.

[yellowcanine]

29. It's a matter of simple geography.

I see you're another believer in the elder Limbaugh brother's virtue.

Not sure what THAT is about - I was not commenting on Limbaugh per se but maybe it was a joke?

I based my comments mostly on geography - not assumptions. Look at a map of the Caribbean. Cuba is by far the largest tropical island close to the continental U.S. It has about three times the coastline of the Dominican Republic. More coastline means more places to put tropical resorts.

Beyond geography - Cuba historically is a draw for the U.S. tourist that a Dominican Republic cannot hope to match ever. In addition to the Cuban exiles (most of whom have plenty of incentives to visit Cuba), every baby boomer in the U.S. grew up and matured with Cuba as sort of the ultimate "forbidden fruit." We remember Batista, Fidel and Che, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy getting on TV and talking about "Cuber" in that wonderful New England accent. We remember the first airplane hijackings to Cuba, the Mariel boat lift, Cuban boat people, Elian Gonzolas. The first baby boomer just started to collect Social Security. Over the next fifteen years or so, the baby boomers are going to be retiring in increasing numbers. They are healthy, they have money, and many of them want to travel. Cuba is right there, historically and geographically. The Dominican Republic and even the Bahamas don't stand a chance.

As for infrastructure, etc., that is the beauty of it. Much of Cuba is more or less a "blank slate" as far as extensive tourist infrastructure is concerned. The big hotels, casinos, and investors love that sort of situation. Climate and land are conducive to a strong agricultural economy with possibly a large biofuel component based on ethanol from sugar cane. All of it will depend on political stability of course - and that is not a given. But it is likely, imo, that when Castro goes, the Cubans will embrace political and economic reform and capitalist investors. It will not likely be the wild unregulated atmosphere of the Batista Cuba in the 1950s - if that returns the tourists probably will stay away. But given even a little enlightened post Castro leadership, Cuba has enormous potential for development with a booming tourist sector and a solid agricultural and light industry sector. I would even predict that a bunch of major league baseball teams will set up their spring training camps and maybe even some minor league farm franchises in the post-Castro Cuba - what better way to tap into the Cuban young talent?

[saildude]

12. I sailed over on my sailboat

I sailed over while Clinton was still president. The Cubans offered to not stamp my passport.

Here I am having a beer with the Coast Guard while checking in.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64368273@N00/212860048/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="" width="500" height="289" alt="Cuban Coast Guard1" /></a>

[Pavulon]

14. Pearson?

Looks like a pearson sailboat?

Welcome..

[saildude]

15. Yes, good eye

In the Abacos, Bahamas.


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64368273@N00/1240550930/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="" width="500" height="353" alt="Bahamas Osprey" /></a>

[Pavulon]

19. Loved that boat

Everything except the atomic 4 was great. That was a fun project, swapping it out for a diesel. In school a friend had one, great sailing boat.

They do not make them like that any more. That boat would take a beating and was tolerant of piss poor sailors like me.

Cool pictures.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Unfortunately, your first posts here may be your last! Making a citizen's arrest on you!

Well, well. What do we have here? Looks as if you have given BOTH these Cuban gentlemen beers. We call that "trading with the enemy!"

Just come along quietly and don't make it harder on yourself. You're in big trouble!

[saildude]

18. Nope, You are wrong

There are 3 of them- the other one is up forward in the v-berth.:)

[zippy890]

22. ooo lucky

I would love to sail to Cuba for a visit.

Those fellows don't look too threatening.


:hi:

Welcome to DU

[Lisa]

17. "Some Americans sail to Cuba, but most fly through Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas or Jamaica"

Recall that the US government now wants to see passenger lists for flights leaving Canada for the Caribbean ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3025170&mesg_id=3025170

[Javaman]

21. can't have merkins seeing a commie country with national health care

and still being able to live on little to no oil.

nope nope, can't have that.

[bdamomma]

23. this whole embargo thing is stupid I would love to visit Cuba

I heard it is a beautiful country.

[jakefrep]

24. Good for them.

I'm sick of our country being held over a barrel by a bunch of tyrants in Little Havana. If their guy Bautista weren't such a dickhead, we wouldn't have Castro.

I want Cuban cigars, dammit!

[Judi Lynn]

25. If you want Cuban cigars, then you'd better run for Congress, so you can get them, like Tom DeLay!

Tom, enjoying a toot on a "Hoyo de Monterrey double corona."

Or, maybe you could move to Miami, befriend some Cuban "exile" terrorists, like Rodolfo Frometa, and get one of them to bring some back the next time they sneak ashore to knock off someone they don't like in Cuba!


Roldolfo Frometa Caballero
Commandos F-4, formerly of Alpha 66

[yellowcanine]

26. The Cuban travel ban is an anachronism - should have been scrapped at least 30 years ago.

In fact - it is questionable if it ever did anything except help Castro maintain his grip. Cuban Americans and other Americans freely traveling would have eventually undermined Castro's rule, not made it stronger.

[mitchtv]

30. The ban should be dumped, along with

The Cuban Readjustment Act (wet foot, dry foot)