Tourist Tampering
Posted on May 4, 2008
Although Canada, Spain, Italy and Great Britain have helped boost Cuba’s tourist industry by 15% in the first quarter of 2008, the United States continues to discourage its citizens from visiting the Caribbean island. In fact, Florida Republicans have breathlessly introduced yet another ill-conceived “anti-terrorism bill” which would punish travel agencies that provide direct access to Cuba with fines ranging from $100,000 to $300,000. (Bush administration assholes - I mean officials - say the current trade embargo will not be lifted in the near future.) AFP has more.
The Orange County Register notes that although visiting Cuba is not illegal per se for American citizens, tourists who spend money there may face fines of up to $55,000. Further noted: “Barack Obama would lift restrictions on visits by Cuban Americans to the hemisphere’s only communist country if elected president. A growing chorus of Democratic and Republican lawmakers would go even further, loosening the U.S. embargo enough to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba…
“The American Society of Travel Agents recently estimated that nearly 1.8 million Americans would visit in the first three years following an end to the travel ban.”
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Tags: Cuba, travel
