End of Ban of Travel to Cuba?

[Sayhey]

The Senate has past a bill to eliminate the ban of travel to Cuba. CNN reports,

Defying a threatened presidential veto, the Senate joined the House Thursday in moving to end four-decade-old restrictions on travel to Cuba.

"It is not constructive at all to try to slap around Fidel Castro by imposing limits on the American people's right to travel," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota.

The Senate voted 59-36 to bar the use of government money to enforce current travel restrictions. Last month a nearly identical measure passed the House, setting up a showdown with the administration, which says President Bush will veto a $90 billion Transportation and Treasury Department bill if contains the Cuba language.

link (http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/23/cuba.travel.ap/index.html)

At last some sanity in our relationship with Cuba. Even if Bush does veto the bill, it bodes well if he is defeated next year.

[zimv20]

i'd like to see cuba. my greatgrandmother partied in havana in the '20s. i'm all about following in those footsteps.

[Sayhey]

I went there in the mid-seventies when it was easier to go. It is a great place to party still, whatever one thinks of Fidel. If you go, try to go to Santiago de Cuba - one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

[Desertrat]

It will be interesting to see what happens to the Castro system, if a bunch of money-spending tourists start wandering around the place. The inherent message is, "If our system is so bad, how come we can afford to come here and play?" Built in to that notion is, "If you change your system, you, too, can be a tourist."

Information flow is a wondrous thing.

'Rat

[Sayhey]

'Rat,
they have had tourists running around Cuba for a long time. It just they have been mostly European and Canadian. As to information flow, Castro has never been able to stop it with Miami 90 miles away. Cubans listen to Miami radio stations. I think the reason this has past the Congress is that folks are seeing that we are hurting ourselves more than Castro with this ban.

[mactastic]

Dubya can't support any weakening of the Cuba embargo/travel ban unless he wants to risk losing the fanatical support of the Cuban exile bloc in south Florida. Without them, he will probably lose Florida, and the election with it.

Just shows how a small group can have huge influence in national politics.

[3rdpath]

it's been relatively easy to visit cuba via mexico for many years...i've quite a few friends who do it on a regular basis.

i truly hope the travel restrictions are eliminated...if there's one thing history has shown it's: sanctions and isolation don't work as a means of advancing a cause.

opening trade and travel will change cuba faster than exploding cigars

[frescies]

Originally posted by zimv20
i'd like to see cuba. my greatgrandmother partied in havana in the '20s. i'm all about following in those footsteps.


Was she a real party animal?

[zimv20]

Originally posted by frescies
Was she a real party animal?

she lived to 101 and drank beer right up until the doctors insisted she stop.

i didn't learn about the havana trip until her 100th birthday party and there was a slide show. she was standing on the deck of a ship w/ a stole around her neck.

i thought it was great. she and i are the only two people in the family who travel and have red hair.

she was awesome. i miss her.

[Desertrat]

:) Never underestimate the Little Old Ladies!

An older friend of my mother's somehow escaped the prairies of Montana around 1900 and wound up getting a BA in Sociology "back east". She taught school in India, before WW I. After a teaching stint in China during the warlord era, she was entrained to Shanghai to return to the states. When one of the generals comandeered the train for his army, she drew herself up to her full 5'-1" and refused to leave. He gave in, and she made it to the port in time to board the ship. :)

In the Philippines, prior to WW II, she decided it would be fun to hike from Baguio, in northern Luzon, to the north coast of the island. So she did. No headhunters were going to keep her from her trek!

She was a compos mentis, bright-eyed little sparrow right up to her death in her late 80s...

'Rat