U.S.-Cuba travel flourishing

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Mon, Oct. 05, 2009
U.S.-Cuba travel flourishing
BY FRANCES ROBLES
[e-mail]

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.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/1266976.html

[flamingdem]

1. OK. But this policy is so uneven, it depends on how well you game the system

who you are, who you know. There are still academics and musicians being denied visas probably because they don't know the people who pull strings with the Treasury Department.

Thus you see Pablo Milanes and Omara Portuando with visas, probably because they are so visible that to deny them is to incur a stink...

But the really great popular musicians, that I love, Charanga Habanera, Los Van Van, Gente de Zona are still being denied touring visas in the USA. One reason is that they are considered aligned with the government and that is just pure garbage. It's because their denials don't cause the degree of stink necessary.

I'm not 100% sure on this but I believe the Obama administration is so wishy-washy on Cuba because of their fear of right wing backlash, as with health care they are just so careful. Sure, Fidel and Raul are not shining examples of democratic behavior and don't deserve "rewards" but we seem to put up with the sins of the Chinese sin problema ninguno.

Personally, I have taken advantage of the exceptionalism of travel restrictions to enjoy elite licensed travel denied to others, and I must say it's nice to go to a place with very few American republicans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Judi Lynn]

2. It IS kept quiet usually but there is a significant number of creepy Republicans who ALSO favor

losing the travel ban, but for probably totally different reason. (They may have some fat cat contributors who are dying to get in there and start fleecing the Cuban people, or building huge retirement villages, like Sun City, in Arizona, which Rep. Jeff Flake, ALSO a long-term proponent of removing the travel ban represents.)

One of my own rabid right-wing state senators, Pat Roberts, has been to Cuba multiple times, as well as my Dem. Congressman, Dennis Moore, who is also on the Congressional Working Group on Cuba, in addition to another Kansas Congressman, Jerry Moran.

Next door, in Missouri, a few years ago, Dem. Governor Mel Carnahan debated creepy, wierd John Ashcroft during their Senate campaign, and they BOTH stated they support the end of the travel ban, AND the embargo. Within a day or so after the debate, Mel Carnahan's private plane was destroyed in a crash, and the state STILL voted for his name, and his wife, Jean was asked to serve in his absense. _{George W. Bush} immediately sent Ashcroft in as his Justice Department head, as you recall, so he STILL went to Washington.

That's just right in the middle of a lot of deeply conservative Kansas farmers, on one side, (remember Topeka's grotesque homophobic activist Fred Phelps) and radical idiot racist redneck blobs on the other, Rush Limbaugh's home state!

Have heard for years the reception Los Van Van got in Miami when crowds of anti-Castro Cubans gathered early outside the auditorium, and started getting rough with people trying to get in, hurling cans of Coke, D-cell batteries, even baggies filled with excrement, etc. at them, and shrieking obscenities, and spitting at everyone in reach, sending people to the hospital.

Have heard bits from their Miami appearance which seeme to go wonderfully once people got in.

Thanks for mentioning the other musi

[Judi Lynn]

3. It IS kept quiet usually but there is a significant number of creepy Republicans who ALSO favor

losing the travel ban, but for probably totally different reasons. (They may have some fat cat contributors who are dying to get in there and start fleecing the people, or building huge retirement villages, like Sun City, in Arizona, which Rep.
Jeff Flake, ALSO a long-term proponent of removing the travel ban represents.)

One of my own rabid right-wing state senators, Pat Roberts, has been to Cuba multiple times, as well as my Dem. Congressman, Dennis Moore, who is also on the Congressional Working Group on Cuba, in addition to another Kansas Congressman, Jerry Moran.

Next door, in Missouri, a few years ago, Dem. Governor Mel Carnahan debated creepy John Ashcroft during their Senate campaign, and they BOTH stated support for ending the travel ban, AND the embargo. Within a day or so after the debate, Mel Carnahan was killed, along with an adult son, when his private plane was destroyed in a crash, and the state STILL voted for his name, and his wife, Jean was asked to serve in his absense. _{George W. Bush} immediately sent Ashcroft in as his Justice Department head, as you recall, so he STILL went to Washington.

Missouri Dem. Senator Blanche Lincoln has also been a steady advocate of removing barriers to Cuba.

That's just right in the middle of a lot of deeply conservative Kansas farmers, on one side, (remember Topeka's grotesque homophobic activist Fred Phelps) and radical idiot racist redneck blobs on the other, Rush Limbaugh's home state!

Have heard for years the reception Los Van Van got in Miami when crowds of anti-Castro Cubans gathered early outside the auditorium, and started getting rough with people trying to get in, hurling cans of Coke, D-cell batteries, even baggies filled with excrement, etc. at them, and shrieking obscenities, and spitting at everyone in reach, sending people to the hospital.

Have heard bits from their Miami appearance which seemed to go wonderfully once people got in.

Thanks for mentioning the other artists. Will look for them in the future.

[flamingdem]

4. Some push back: Byron Dorgan asks the USA to permit the NY Phil to travel to Cuba

http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2009/10/05/senador-byron-dorgan-pide-que-eeuu-permita-que-filarmonica-de-ny-viaje-a-cuba/

Byron Dorgan asks the USA to permit the NY Phil to travel to Cuba.

Senador Byron Dorgan pide que EE.UU. permita que Filarmónica de NY viaje a Cuba

Las restricciones impuestas en Estados Unidos a los viajes a Cuba, las cuales provocaron que la Filarmónica de Nueva York aplazara una visita a la isla, son indignantes y deberían ser suspendidas, dijo el lunes un senador que desde hace tiempo ha pedido la cancelación de barreras comerciales y límites a viajes.

“Es casi increíble lo que aún estamos haciendo con respecto a la política de viajes con Cuba”, destacó el senador demócrata Byron Dorgan en un discurso en el Senado, en Washington.

Dorgan, que ha presentado un proyecto de ley para suspender las prohibiciones a las visitas a Cuba, dijo que le ha escrito al Departamento del Tesoro a fin de que emita licencias de viajes para ver “si no podemos hacerlos pensar bien al menos un poco”.

La Filarmónica, que el año pasado tocó ante público en Corea del Norte y pronto realizará su primer concierto en Vietnam, recibió aprobación para que músicos y su personal viajaran a Cuba. Pero la orquesta decidió suspender la visita después que la Oficina de Control de Activos en el Extranjero, perteneciente al Departamento del Tesoro, les negó licencias de viaje a 150 personas que habían accedido a cubrir los costos de la visita del 30 de octubre al 2 de noviembre, y habían expresado interés en acompañar a la orquesta a La Habana.

La visita hubiera sido uno de los intercambios culturales más importantes desde que Fidel Castro ascendió al poder en Cuba hace medio siglo, y hubiera coincidido con la política del presidente Barack Obama de mejorar gradualmente las relaciones con la isla.

Las actuales leyes permiten algunos viajes a Cuba para los cubano-estadounidenses que visitan a familiares. Las autorizaciones de viajes son por lo general limitadas a ciertas categorías de visitantes, como periodistas o investigadores profesionales, y las restricciones de transacciones financieras relacionadas con los viajes obstaculizan aún más las visitas.

Dorgan dijo que mientras espera a que el Congreso actúe sobre su proyecto de ley, “tenemos que pasar por estos disparates de que el gobierno federal y el Departamento del Tesoro nos digan quién puede y quién no puede viajar. En mi opinión, el que se restrinja la libertad del pueblo estadounidense es indignante”.