A House subcommittee (Financial Services) on June 17th added language to the appropriations bill that would ease travel restrictions for Cuban Americans wishing to visit family and would facilitate agricultural sales to Cuba. The result of the subcommittee meeting is an appropriations bill that allows for Cuban Americans to travel to Cuba once per year and expands the definition of family to include cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. Get more details from this Reuters article http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1738649220080617 Or in Rep. Serrano’s words: “This mark also includes provisions to liberalize travel to Cuba for Americans who have family members living in that nation. There is no reason to place harsh restrictions on those who simply wish to visit close family members. In addition, the bill contains a provision to facilitate agricultural trade with Cuba, allowing more American farmers to sell their products to Cuba.”

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Members of Congress who need strong encouragement:

• Rodney Alexander (R) LA-5 (Alexandria, Monroe areas) tel. 202.225.8490
• Jo Bonner (R) AL-1 (Mobile, Foley areas) tel. 202.225.4931
• Allen Boyd (D) FL-2 (Tallahassee, Panama City areas) 202.225.5235
• Chet Edwards (D) TX-17 (Waco, College Station areas) 202.225.6105
• Jack Kingston (R) GA-1 (Savannah, Brunswick, Baxley, Valdosta areas) 202.225.5831
• John Peterson (R) PA-5 (State College, Titusville areas) 202.225.2565
• Dennis Rehberg (R) MT-At large (full state) 202.225.3211
• Ciro Rodriguez (D) TX-23 (San Antonio area) 202.225.4511
• Steven Rothman (D) NJ-9 (Hackensack, Jersey City areas) 202.225.5061
• Tim Ryan (D) OH-17 (Youngstown, Akron, Warren areas) 202.225.5261
• Adam Schiff (D) CA-29 (Pasadena area) 202.225.4176
• Zach Wamp (R) TN-3 (Chattanooga, Oak Ridge areas) 202.225.3271
• Frank Wolf (R) VA-10 (Herndon, Winchester areas) 202.225.5136

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS

Click to read the original article from The Miami Herald.

TALLAHASSEE —

About 120 Cuban families and their travel agents urged Gov. Charlie Crist on Wednesday to veto a bill that would impose tough new regulations and penalties on companies that arrange travel to Cuba. The bill, sponsored by Miami Rep. David Rivera and Eustis Sen. Carey Baker, would require companies licensed by the U.S. State Department to provide travel services to Cuba and ”any other terrorist nation” to pay a $2,500 annual registration fee — up from $300 — and post a bond of up to $300,000.

Travel companies complain that the measure will increase their costs, force them to defend against unfounded allegations by people with political motives, and make it nearly impossible for many financially strapped families with relatives in Cuba to afford the trips home.

”There is nothing in this bill that protects you as a consumer. It is basically a witchhunt from people who have their own political agenda,” said Tessie Aral of ABC Charters Travel in Miami, who organized the protest in the state capital. Her company flies 20,000 visitors to Cuba a year on flights that operate five days a week.

Sylvia Wilhelm, executive director of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights, believes the bill is another election-year attempt to look tough on Cuba, similar to the tightened travel restrictions imposed by President Bush in 2004. But she said the measure could backfire this year because she believes most people in the Cuban American community want to see the tight travel restrictions lifted.

”No government has the right to separate families,” she said. “The only thing [the Bush restrictions] have done is create havoc in the Cuban family. Our group is going to be actively campaigning against any candidate who supports regulations that separate families.”

Members of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights (CACFR) traveled to Tallahassee, FL, today (Wed. June 11) to meet with Townson Fraser, Governor Charlie Crist’s deputy chief of staff and legislative affairs director. During the almost hour-long meeting, the issue discussed was Senate Bill 1310, the law introduced in the Florida legislature by State Rep. David Rivera, from Miami, which passed both the Florida House and Senate, and should go into effect on July 1.

We were there to insist that Governor Crist veto the law for reasons outlined during the meeting.

“Not only is the law unfair and discriminatory,” Fraser was told. But if allowed to take effect it will only create greater chaos and pain in a community already rattled by federal regulations that limit family visits to once every three years; limits remittances; and defines who family members one can visit and send remittances to.

Rep. Rivera claims 1310 will help Florida regulate travel to Cuba, calling it a terrorist state. What the Miami republican fails, or refuses, to realize is that Cuba travel is already heavily regulated by the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury through OFAC.

At a time when Florida is facing cutbacks to education, health care for children, social services and a host of much needed state services due to a receding economy, Rivera and his ilk want to create and even costlier bureaucracy which will only mirror at times federal law and regulations. At the same time, 1310 will probably put a number of Cuba travel providers out of business creating greater unemployment and loss of revenue to the state.

In a hot 90 degree day in Tallahassee, more than 100 Cuban Americans from Miami also traveled all night in buses where we all participated in a rally after the meeting with the governor’s office. From children to elderly citizens participated peacefully, asking the governor to veto 1310.

Stay tuned for further developments…

Alvaro F. Fernandez

Florida Senate Bill 1310, which will further limit the ability of Cuban families on both sides of the Florida Straits to stay in touch with each other, is both cruel and discriminatory, say members of the Cuban American Commission for Family Rights (CACFR) as they prepare to take their case to the governor’s office in Tallahassee on Wednesday morning. Joined by a group of other organizations and Cuban Americans from Miami, Commission directors will meet with key staffers from the governor’s office to discuss how this bill will negatively impact not only families, but businesses, jobs and in the end, Florida residents’ pocketbooks.  A peaceful demonstration is planned for that same morning in Tallahassee in front of the Capitol Building and the governor’s office. A group of Miamians will have traveled all night in buses to attend the rally.  

“Our hope is to stop this cruel and discriminatory law from going into effect on July 1,” said Alvaro F. Fernandez, Commission president. “If 1310 does become law, family travel to Cuba would become even more arduous and expensive. It is why we will appeal to the governor’s humanity and understanding of what is good for our state and our people,” added Fernandez.

“It is a sad state of affairs when for the sake of electoral politics basic family rights are violated”, said Silvia Wilhelm, Commission executive director. “I thought we had seen the end of it after the 2004 regulations.”

CACFR was created in June 2004, solely for one purpose, to combat the cruel regulations imposed by the Bush Administration limiting family travel to Cuba to once every three years, with no exceptions, not even for humanitarian reasons. Included in the new measures was a limit of remittances one could send to those family members. Most insulting, some felt, was the fact that the administration deemed fit to define who a Cuban family member could be — excluding aunts, uncles and cousins, for example. 

A recent Florida International University (FIU) poll revealed that 66 percent of Miami Cuban Americans were in disagreement with these regulations. Two years ago when there was hope that U.S. Rep. William Delahunt would present a bill in Congress eliminating the anti-Cuban family measures, more than 14,000 persons signed a CACFR petition in favor of the Delahunt bill.

The Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times have both written editorials very critical of the Florida legislation (SB 1310) which takes effect July 1. Businesses affected by the new Florida measure on travel to Cuba have categorically stated they will file a lawsuit against the state if the legislation is signed by Governor Crist. According to experts, this is a losing case for the state and will therefore end up costing all Florida taxpayers in court expenses and time wasted.  

The state has yet to address Senate Bill 1310’s regulations and procedures. Companies flying to Cuba at this time are at a loss as to what the next steps will be. Experts agree that one of the immediate results of the law will be chaos. It is also expected that the 45-minute air flight will be prolonged since a third leg to the flight will probably be added making the trip also more expensive.

By DAMIEN CAVE

Taken from The New York Times.

MIAMI — Baltasar Martin Garrote desperately wants to see his mother turn 86 in August at her home in Cuba. But an American law will not let him.

Cuban-Americans can visit the island of Cuba only once every three years, so because he spent 12 days there last October, he must wait, hoping and praying that his mother, who has cancer, lives until 2010.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Mr. Garrote said. “If you have sick relatives, you should have a right to see them. That’s not political.”

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