Showdown on Cuba policy not over yet

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Wednesday, 03.11.09
Showdown on Cuba policy not over yet

Congress OK'd a bill making it easier for Americans to trade with and travel to Cuba. The White House says it will not enforce the changes. The lawmaker who wrote the amendments vows to fight.

BY LESLEY CLARK AND FRANCES ROBLES
[email protected]

WASHINGTON -- Facing strong opposition from lawmakers with large Cuban-American constituencies, the Obama administration pledged -- in writing -- that changes to U.S.-Cuba policy tucked into the giant 2009 spending bill will have no teeth.

The promise worked: Lawmakers Tuesday night approved the $410 billion spending bill, which included the controversial provisions that make travel and trade to Cuba easier by cutting off the funding for enforcement of restrictions. It cleared the Senate by a voice vote, after senators voted 62 to 35 to end debate.

In a quest to secure two of the votes from senators who had vowed to block the entire budget bill, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner assured Democratic Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida and Bob Menendez of New Jersey that the government would interpret the new law so strictly that it will be ineffective.

Geithner's letter to the two senators persuaded them to change their votes and approve the spending package. Rep. José E. Serrano, the New York Democrat who wrote the Cuba amendments in the bill, warned that the law is not subject to ''creative interpretation'' and vowed ``a showdown.''

''The Treasury Department is going to try , and the appropriations committee will have to remind them who Congress is,'' Serrano told The Miami Herald. ``Treasury will be in violation of the law. There will be a showdown. The bigger issue will not be Congressman Serrano. It will be that they are behaving just like the Bush administration did.''

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/943485.html

---

:wtf:

[EFerrari]

1. Serrano maybe needed a little theater to point to back home?

Is that possible?

[Chulanowa]

2. Wait wait...

"which included the controversial provisions that make travel and trade to Cuba easier by cutting off the funding for enforcement of restrictions"

So... The law remains on the books. It's still illegal because of this law. But the law might not be enforced because of budget cuts?

:wtf: indeed

[Ghost Dog]

3. How weird. BBC says this, little as it is, applies only to 'Cuban-Americans'?

Cuban-Americans will be allowed to travel to the island once a year and send more money to relatives there.

Curbs on sending medicines and food have also been eased. The measures were part of a $410bn bill to fund US government operations.

...

The legislation overturns rules imposed by the Bush administration which limited travel to just two weeks every three years, and confined visits to immediate family members.

/.. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7936430.stm

So, non-Cuban Americans still prohibited... And I was going to ask whether this kind of blatant discrimination is constitutional in the USA?

But, the Miami Herald's take on this changes the perspective a little...

:wtf:

[scubadude]

4. So long to the "Obama administration will not bow down to special interest groups"...

This action throws that pledge out the window. The Cubans will continue to suffer, and we will still not be able to travel there.

Hopefully the administration knows some reason that makes this decision just,


Scuba

[Mika]

5. When I pointed out Obama's flip flop on this issue when he came to Miami...

.. I was soundly scolded by many a DUer for going negative. Turns out I was right, not negative. Just realistic as to the nature of US "democracy".

[scubadude]

6. If you suppor Obama when he screws up your a DemocratwannabeRepublican

That is what the Republicans did. They supported Bush and he was constantly screwing up.

True Democrats are not afraid to let their leaders know when they are making mistakes. We do not support them blindly. If we did, we'd be Republicans.

Scuba

[apnu]

7. Why is Geithner talking to them about Cuban relations?

Isn't he from the wrong department for that sort of thing?

[Judi Lynn]

9. Through some thoroughly dirty machinations legislation was arranged to fashion

Cuba policy so travel to Cuba was not banned offcially, but spending even one cent in Cuba was made illegal. Here are some examples of how underhanded, and treacherous that hidden law really is:

San Diegan Fined $10,000 For Bicycle Tour Of Cuba
Woman Part Of Canadian Touring Company
Associated Press
UPDATED: 7:32 a.m. PDT July 15, 2003

SAN DIEGO -- A 75-year-old San Diego woman who went with a Canadian company on a bicycle tour of Cuba is fighting the U.S. government's decision to fine her nearly $10,000 for violating the U.S. ban on travel there.

Joan Slote said she made the trip three years ago only because the tour's Canadian organizer assured her in writing that she could legally visit Cuba as long as she traveled through a third country, such as Canada.

When she returned to the United States, the retired medical worker reported that she spent $18 in souvenirs and $20 in airport tax in Cuba and was fined $7,600. Penalties that have accrued while she has fought the fine have increased the toll to $9,871.75.

~~~~~~~~~~
Another view on Slote's case:

In January 2000, Joan Slote, of San Diego, a gold-medallist at the senior Olympics, booked a cycling trip to Cuba through Worldwide.

While it is legal for Americans to visit Cuba, Washington has effectively banned such travel through a provision that makes it a crime for them to spend any money while there.

``It's one of those idiotic things that they have,'' said Gonsalves.

A few months after returning to the U.S., Slote was notified by the federal Treasury Department that the trip was illegal. The retired grandmother of six was fined $7,630 US.

Her crime: buying $18 US in souvenirs and an exit visa.

Slote, who was caring at the time for a son who was dying of brain cancer, failed to respond within the 10-day time frame to request a hearing.

The Treasury Department, whose actions against American visitors to Cuba increased dramatically under President George W. Bush, refused to negotiate with her or anyone advocating for her, including at least one U.S. senator.

On July 7, the department notified her the case was "closed'' and she now owed $9,871.75 US including interest and penalties. She was given 10 days to pay or have the money docked from her social security income.

More:
http://www.ciponline.org/cubaforum/press.htm

Another f'r instance from the same site:

Pirates of the Caribbean
The Nation
July 14, 2003

Seven years ago, a Michigan couple, Kip and Patrick Taylor, sailed to Cuba. They knew that spending dollars there -- unlike, say, in Stalinist North Korea -- is forbidden by a tired, politics-driven US embargo. The law is the law, so like dutiful Americans they stocked up on provisions and spent no money. As they sailed home, however, lightning struck their boat and destroyed the mast. The Cuban Coast Guard rescued them.

Enter, again, the US government: It forbade them to repair the boat -- can't spend any money in Cuba! -- and told them to abandon it, and their two dogs, and go home by plane. After weeks of negotiations, the Taylors nevertheless fixed their boat and sailed home. Questioned upon arrival, they admitted freely to what they'd done. According to their lawyers -- the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights -- after they had disclosed they'd given a band-aid to a local cook who had burned his finger, the Taylors were charged with providing "nursing services to a Cuban national". For their many crimes, they were fined $2,000 each by an obscure government agency, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

You may remember OFAC from reports in April of its laughably tiny fines against US corporations found guilty of trading with the enemy. But while big business gets the kinder-gentler treatment for its sins, private citizens aren't so lucky, and the Bush Administration is ramping up enforcement of the ridiculous Cuban travel ban.

~~~~~~~~~
U.S. Citizens Prohibited from Attending Solar Energy Conference in Cuba

Global Exchange
April 16, 2004

U.S. Citizens Prohibited from Attending Solar Energy Conference

This past week, scientists, engineers, and renewable energy advocates from around the world are converging in Guantanamo, Cuba for an international renewable energy conference. Canadians, Europeans, and Latin Americans will be witnessing first-hand the amazing projects Cuba has accomplished with photovoltaics, visiting rural communities powered by micro-hydro systems, and seeing sugarcane factories feeding biomass produced electricity into the grid. But, where are the renewable energy enthusiasts from the US? Unfortunately, we are prohibited from attending.

Eleven US citizens were planning to travel to Cuba to attend the 6th Annual Cubasolar Renewable Energy Conference this April. This was a delegation organized by Global Exchange, a non-profit organization which has sponsored legal, licensed delegations to the last five Cubasolar conferences. One week before we were to meet in Miami for the short flight to Cuba, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, an agency within the US Treasury Department, sent a letter to Global Exchange stating that attending the conference was an illegal activity, and the trip must be cancelled.

Our delegation consisted of an artist, a teacher, a lawyer, a publisher, a journalist, an editor, three students, and three retirees. How these people attending a renewable energy conference presents a threat to US security is beyond reason. OFAC's action undermines its ability to effectively fight terrorist activities against the United States. OFAC plays a highly important role in stopping the transit of illegal funds to terrorist organizations. Tracking down and punishing renewable energy enthusiasts traveling to a conference in Cuba is a tragic misuse of OFAC's resources.

This latest blow to U.S. citizens legally traveling to Cuba is a part of a growing trend to halt communication between the United States and Cuba. Two weeks ago, OFAC denied licenses to over 70 American scientists and doctors on their way to Cuba for an international conference on coma and brain death. A month earlier, the music charity, Send a Piano to Havana, lost its license to ship used musical instrument parts to a needy conservatory in Cuba. And now, 12 renewable energy advocates and enthusiasts are being prohibited from learning about Cuba's implementation of renewables.

More:
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/cuba/1745.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[L0oniX]

8. This just got me to fire off an email to Nelson with a few warnings about who I will vote for.

[Judi Lynn]

10. There's a DU'er here who has been back and forth to Cuba multiple times,

who made a point of attending all of Bill Nelson's speeches she could manage within driving distance, sometimes making long drives to get there, and questioning him about Cuba policy, and bringing signs with her regarding U.S. citizens' right to travel anywhere not at war with the U.S.

He started recognizing her, and the last thing I saw her discuss was that he was able to look at her when he saw her, and say, "You're the Cuba lady."

Apparently he doesn't treat his normal, non-politically powerful constituents' communications with him very seriously.

[Judi Lynn]

11. LBN readers, have you seen this shocker in the Latin America forum?

DU'er magbana just posted it there today. This is COMPLETELY unexpected:

magbana Donating Member (914 posts) Wed Mar-11-09 12:29 PM
Original message

Granma: Obama Gov't. Fines Company for Links with Havana

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/march/mier11/multa.htm...

Obama government fines company for links with Havana

DESPITE all the pressure to change the blockade’s restrictions on trade, maintained against Cuba for half a century, the U.S. agency charged with harassing Cuba’s suppliers has just levied a $20,950 fine on Lactalis USA, a U.S. affiliate of the French giant Lactalis.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed the fine on the cheese and dairy company for violating blockade regulations by “making electronic financial transactions in which Cuba or a Cuban citizen had an interest” between February 2004 and March 2007, according to media reports in Miami, Florida.

It is the first fine imposed by the Treasury Department on a company for ties to Cuba since President Barack Obama took power, and it reaffirms the policy of blockading the island.

On January 16, the OFAC issued “legal clarifications” that tightened even further restrictions on travel by people from the United States to Cuba, affecting U.S. companies that provide charter flights, book travel or send remittances.

The measures announced four days after Obama was sworn in as president were interpreted at the time as the result of resistance by recalcitrant “Bush cronies,” officials who were not happy about the change in administration.

The OFAC is just one element of the enormous mechanism of aggression implemented against Havana by successive U.S. administrations. Thanks to this agency, the Treasury Department spies on U.S. citizens and foreigners who dare to maintain relations with Cuba. For years, the agency has spent millions of dollars and a good part of its labor power on spying on, detecting, and punishing individuals, companies and other entities. (JGA)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x12629

[Mika]

12. Flip flop.

Obama was soundly against the embargo ALL along - until he came to campaign (fund raise) in Miami. He faced the stark minority of radical RW Cuban exiles and flip flopped. Caved. Folded.

:puke: