New US rules promise legal Cuba travel for many

Source: Associated Press

May 21, 12:15 PM EDT
New US rules promise legal Cuba travel for many
By PETER ORSI
Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) -- The forbidden fruit of American travel is once again within reach. New rules issued by the Obama administration will allow Americans wide access to communist-led Cuba, already a mecca for tourists from other nations.

Within months or even weeks, thousands of people from Seattle to Sarasota could be shaking their hips in tropical nightclubs and sampling the famous stogies, without having to sneak in through a third country and risk the Treasury Department's wrath.

"This is travel to Cuba for literally any American," said Tom Popper, director of Insight Cuba, which took thousands of Americans to Cuba before such programs were put into a deep freeze seven years ago.

But it won't all be a day at the beach or a night at the bar. U.S. visitors may find themselves tramping through sweltering farms or attending history lectures to justify the trips, which are meant, under U.S. policy, to bring regular Cubans and Americans together.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CB_CUBA_MORE_AMERICANS?SITE=INSBT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

At no time do his feet leave his ankles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBQGoSShv54

The AP story unfortunately may feed into the attack from Cuban American hard liners by making the people to people aspect of travel to Cuba sound like a cover not the reason. All the folks quoted, however, will make a serious effort to assure that any trip they organize meets the criteria of purposeful travel.

We lost the opportunity to restore our freedom to travel when the Administration and the Democratic controlled House dropped the ball last year. President Obama could have opened the door wider himself, but he has created a real opportunity that should not be lost. Virtually anyone with an honest interest in learning about Cuba should be able to find a legal path, either by signing up for an appropriate open enrollment trip or by putting together your own group.

Religious organizations and higher education students can easily go now under a general license.

Overview of legal travel:

http://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2011/03/overview-of-legal-travel.html

List of travel providers

http://cubapeopletopeople.blogspot.com/2011/04/list-of-travel-providers.html

Feel free to contact me if you want help to organize a group. director@ffrd.org

John McAuliff
Cuba/US People to People Partnership
Fund for Reconciliation and Development

But it's unlikely he will since, thanks to stupid ass Helms-Burton, he must declare Cuba a democracy.

The President can substantially open Cuba for Americans beyond what he has done by authorizing general licenses for all purposeful travel, including US and Cuban organized conferences. However, legislation adopted in 2000 bars him from permitting tourism, i.e. anything not allowed under Clinton era regulations.

Ironically he does have the power to suspend every other aspect of the embargo because of sloppy drafting of Helms-Burton.

John McAuliff
Fund for Reconciliation and Development

lol

...and I hope it all goes well and the floodgates open, so to speak, at last. Perhaps the Cubans have more to lose, but I've heard enough desire for openness and willingness to accept the risks.

when travel to Cuba by US citizens was momentarily permitted. And that was merely an attempt to revive JFK's reapproachment with Cuba before his untimely death.

But Raygun screwed up Carter's policy and all subsequent Presidents towed the line to appease the Miami exiles, the ones who abandoned the Cuban Revolution and more often than not actively aided and abetted terrorist attacks against Cuba.

The Miami brand of terrorism has always been officially sanctioned by Washington, both in words and in deeds. It could be stopped if there was any desire from the top, just like the Elian crisis was so quickly solved and those criminal kidnappers were shown what our government can and will do to prevent their shenanigans from escalating.

It's time for the US government to act a little more intelligent and a lot more responsible to Cuba, a victim of a half-century of imperialist aggression. Normalization is the first step.

...to effectively lift the ban (there will be requirements but they will be increasingly easy to meet).