Cuba travelers face a deadline to return to U.S. [View All]

Posted on Sat, Jun. 19, 2004

CUBA


Cuba travelers face a deadline to return to U.S.

Hundreds of Cuban Americans will be considered illegal travelers to Cuba if they do not return from the island before new travel rules take effect on June 30.

BY CHRISTINA HOAG
choag@herald.com


Operators of charter flights to Cuba are scrambling to schedule flights to ferry hundreds of Cuban Americans back from the island before new travel regulations make them illegal visitors subject to $7,500 fines as of June 30.The agencies are also trying to contact Cuban Americans already on the island who may not know that they have to return before the more restrictive rules take effect.

''It's quite a panic right now,'' said María Teresa Arau, chief executive and vice president of ABC Charters in Miami, one of seven local companies that operate flights to Cuba. ``I'm in the process of contracting more planes, but I don't think I'll be able to accommodate everyone.''

The new rules, which have been pending for months, were published Wednesday in the Federal Register. A spokeswoman for the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which regulates travel from the United States to Cuba, said the two weeks until they take effect allow travelers time to change schedules.

''We encourage folks to use this time period to make travel arrangements to get back to the U.S.,'' said Molly Millerwise, a Treasury spokeswoman. A traveler returning after June 30 will be subject to a $7,500 fine, Millerwise said. First-time violators with mitigating circumstances have sometimes gotten off with a warning letter, she added.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/8961307.htm

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Vinales, Cuba