Calls to Havana enliven U.S. debate of Cuba travel

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Friday, 04.03.09
Calls to Havana enliven U.S. debate of Cuba travel

Lawmakers on opposite sides of the U.S.-Cuba travel policy debate reached for the phone to make their case.
BY LESLEY CLARK
lclark@MiamiHerald.com

WASHINGTON -- On one phone line was a senator from Florida talking to a hunger-striking dissident in Central Cuba about how President Barack Obama must resist ``commercial temptation.''

In another office on Capitol Hill, the call was with an opposition journalist in Havana, telling a crowded press conference that contact between Americans and Cubans is ``of the utmost importance.''

Lawmakers wrestling over whether to allow Americans to visit Cuba phoned dissident leaders on the island Thursday to underscore support for their opposing stances. The dueling calls came as members of Congress -- buoyed by a new president who has suggested a fresh look at Cuba -- introduced bills that would lift all restrictions on travel to Cuba.

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. William Delahunt held a press conference to discuss his bill -- with 122 co-sponsors -- that would end the limits on travel to Cuba for all Americans. Right now, travel to the hemisphere's last communist country is highly restricted to some lawmakers, scholars, journalists, farmers, and others with special licenses.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/story/981916.html

...and I'll be drinking tequila in Havana, baby.

If you want tequila, take your life into your hands and go to Mexico.

Also, in addition to the travel ban, they'll have to also lift the "You Can't Spend Any Money" ban (which has been ignored for years, but remains a prosecutable offense).

Every time this Delahunt effort gets brought up, I have to wonder if the "Castro Dying" rumors are making the rounds again.

Mojito, baby? KNRRRRRR! I work in Key West once a month (am a 3rd generation Key West Conch)just talkin 'bout this with my Cuban friends...I can't wait!!!!:) The time is NOW!

due to the fact Hurricane Michelle had wiped out Cuba's food supply, people around the Gulf started anticipating an opening of commerce with Cuba eventually, then an opening of travel.

I read at the time Tampa was planning to eventually open a ferry service to Cuba, and was going to take measures to alter it's port to be able to take on new activity there.

Even places as far away as Corpus Christi, Texas started thinking seriously back then about the eventual opening of commerce and the antipated boost in boat traffic between Texas and Cuba.

It would be outstanding to see this Presidency as the one which actually DID something right about Cuba, instead of clinging to that rotted, stinking remnant of right-wing chauvinism, the perpetual punishment of Cuba.