Ban on travel to Cuba may be lifted (At last)
Vietnam and China are OK, now Cuba will also be on the “OK list” for US tourist dollars
“Punishing the American people in our effort to somehow deal a blow to the Castro government has not made any sense at all,” said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.). “At long last, this policy, which has been in place for 50 years and has not worked, will finally be removed.”
Dorgan and fellow sponsors sense an opportunity to change U.S. policy now that President Obama has replaced George W. Bush in the White House and Castro has turned power over to his brother, Raul Castro.
Obama has ordered a review of U.S. policy on Cuba and last month loosened restrictions to let Cuban Americans visit relatives. Journalists can travel to Cuba, as can people on humanitarian missions.
On one side of the debate in Congress are liberal Democrats, Republican free-traders and farm-state members of both parties who seek a wider market for food sales.
Unfettered travel would make it easier to sell more products, they contend. They are backed by the American Farm Bureau Federation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Senate sponsors include Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Michael B. Enzi (R-Wyo.). House sponsors include Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).
On the other side are Cuban Americans and conservatives, who remain alarmed by a communist island 90 miles from the Florida Keys.
If travel limits were lifted, about 3 million Americans would visit Cuba each year, according to a 2002 study by the Brattle Group, economic consultants in Washington.
The increase in air travel, cruises and a ripple effect through the travel industry would produce $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion a year, the group estimated, creating as many as 23,000 jobs.
Martinez accused the Chamber of Commerce and business interests of seeking profits at the expense of freedom and democracy.
“They are not acting from a moral standpoint,” he said. “They are simply acting from an economic advantage standpoint.”