| | |  Travel & Outdoors | October 2009 
US-Cuba Travel Flourishing
 Frances Robles - Miami Herald
go to original
October 05, 2009
| | Although Obama has not officially changed any rules regarding nonfamily trips to Cuba, State Department statistics show anecdotal evidence of a flow of visits. | |
Joan Brown Campbell, the church lady who befriended Elián González during his sojourn here a decade ago, has been to Cuba 37 times - except during the last Bush administration, when she could not get the required U.S. permission to visit the island for four straight years.
She applied again this year now that Barack Obama is in the White House and got the license to travel straightaway. The U.S. State Department even opened doors for her to invite several Cuban academics to visit New York. Among those who attended a conference Brown organized last month: Ofelia Ortega, a member of the Cuban national assembly.
"The U.S. Interests Section in Havana said to me, `Give us the names of the people you are asking for; we will call them to come in for a visa,' " Brown said. "This was very unusual. In the past, people had to wait in a long line and wait three months before finding out whether the visa had been approved. I have been doing this for 35 years, and this was a shock to me.
"They didn't turn anyone down."
Although Obama has not officially changed any rules regarding nonfamily trips to Cuba, State Department statistics show anecdotal evidence of a flow of visits.
From October 2008 to August 2009, 16,217 Cubans have visited the United States, up from 10,661 during the same period in 2007-08, the numbers show.
Just Wednesday, the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota announced that a delegation from Cuba's Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment will make a rare visit to its headquarters this week.
Experts say that although statistics have not been released regarding how many American academics, musicians and church groups have visited Cuba under Obama, the U.S. State Department has relaxed strict Bush-era interpretations of existing law.
More Americans are heading to Cuba in the "people to people" travel excursions. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson recently made the trip on a legal trade expedition, and actor Benicio Del Toro has gone at least twice since his movie Che opened last year.
Cuba Education Tours offers American professionals tips on how to qualify for a general research license. They offer trips over Thanksgiving, Christmas and a "51st Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution Tour spanning New Years."
"Even though the administration hasn't yet published changes allowing more cultural and educational exchanges to and from Cuba, anecdotal evidence suggests that such loosening has already taken place," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a critic of Obama's Cuba policy. "We see ads informing college students and artistic groups of planned excursions to the island. So it looks like its back to the era of two-week college courses in Cuban culture taught on the beaches of Varadero."
DATA NOT RELEASED
The Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control declined repeated requests to release data showing how many Americans were authorized this year to travel to Cuba. The State Department acknowledges that the Bush administration narrowly interpreted existing law.
"Actually, there has not been an official directive, and there certainly has not been a policy change," said Bisa Williams, acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. "There's a flow up here and down there. We're just saying we are going back to what's on the books. There is still a full review of every application."
In fact, the Cuban press reported this week that 30 American scientists were refused permission to attend a medical conference in eastern Cuba this month.
The so-called "people to people" licenses date back to the Clinton administration, when special travel permission categories existed for academic and cultural visits. That meant some groups did not have to apply for a special visa every time they traveled, which gave rise to a cottage industry that specialized in taking special-interest groups to visit the hemisphere's last communist regime.
But Bush put a stop to the practice, which experts say was widely abused by tourists who visited Cuba's beaches under the guise of academic or cultural enrichment. Advocates for increased relations between the two countries say the trips are necessary to break down barriers between the two long hostile nations.
"There was a general policy to obstruct all people to people contacts between Americans and Cuba," said attorney Robert Muse, an expert on the U.S. trade embargo. "Virtually any application submitted was denied during that period. While there may be more travel going on now, what Obama has not done is return to licenses."
In 2007, the Bush administration authorized just seven Americans to go to Cuba for public performances or athletic competitions.
The State Department now says they are permitting performances, but are looking at factors such as ticket prices.
Colombian rocker Juanes met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in May to promote his idea for a "concert for peace" in Havana Sept. 20. Because the concert was free and open to the public, the State Department allowed American musicians to participate.
ACADEMIA
Obama also ended Bush's practice of stonewalling Cuban academics traveling to the United States to attend conferences.
"Cooperation in academia is very important, and so Cuban professors felt very limited before," said Cuban political scientist Rafael Hernández, who got a visa to attend Brown Campbell's conference, and will be a visiting professor this semester at the University of Texas.
"Professors resented not being able go forward with that. It's too soon to tell whether there's been a real change," Hernández said.
Hernández said he twice got visas under the Bush administration and was denied "various times." He had last visited the United States in 2006.
Critics say the recent boom in travel demonstrates that Obama doesn't need an official policy change offering special licenses.
"The law permits all that without a change," said pro-embargo lobbyist Mauricio Claver-Carone. "There is purposeful travel. The administration has been more lax in authorizing travel than the previous administration was, but that fits the pattern with Democrats."
But activists have urged Obama to do more by officially changing the rules, not just interpreting them differently.
SMALL STEPS
"Obama is being very cautious," said Silvia Wilhelm, who heads the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights. "I don't know why they haven't just said, `these are the new licenses.' I think they want to be careful in this arena, and let's face it, this arena is a minefield."
Since Obama has already offered Cuban Americans the right to travel freely and send money, he is probably waiting for the Castro government to make similar concessions before he allows more liberalized travel for all Americans, she said.
"This is not a rumba. This is a danzón: very small steps," Wilhelm said. "Now we have to see if our dance partner will also take small steps."
frobles(at)MiamiHerald.com |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us