U.S. aggressively enforcing Cuba travel restrictions

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration on Monday identified 10 foreign
companies -- most of which are involved in the travel business -- that it
believes are linked to Cuba and thus are forbidden from doing business in
the United States.

The Treasury Department's action marks the latest development emerging from
President Bush's call for more stringent enforcement of provisions that
forbid most travel to Cuba. Under current rules, there are exceptions that
cover working journalists, relatives of Cuban citizens, providers of
humanitarian aid and others.

"We're cracking down. We mean business," Treasury Secretary John Snow said
in a speech to a group of Cuban Americans in Miami. "We're cutting off
American dollars headed to Fidel Castro, period."

The 10 companies identified by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control
are believed to be owned or controlled by the Cuban government or Cuban
nationals. Nine of the companies provide travel services and one allows
people to buy gifts and send them to Cuba.

Any assets or property of the companies found in the United States must be
frozen and people in the United States are forbidden from doing business
with them.

President Kennedy imposed economic sanctions against Cuba in 1963 during the
Cold War. The basic goal is to isolate the Cuban government economically and
deprive it of U.S. dollars, the government says.

The travel companies identified Monday "provide easy access to Cuba to those
U.S. individuals who choose to break the law," the department said. "Many of
these entities use the Internet to advertise and sell Cuban tourism to the
U.S. public. U.S. law enforcement officials have intercepted a number of
unauthorized travelers whose tour packages were purchased through one of
these entities."

The government late last year stepped up enforcement of the travel ban by
intensifying training of customs inspectors as well as inspections of
travelers and shipments, especially certain flights out of Miami, New York
and Los Angeles. As a result, around 275 people were denied travel on
charter flights to Cuba after examinations revealed they did not qualify for
one of the travel exemptions, the department said.

Last year, both the Republican-led House and Senate voted to end the travel
ban, but congressional negotiators stripped that provision out of a
compromise measure to finance the Treasury and Transportation departments.
The White House had threatened to veto legislation that would have weakened
the travel ban.

Snow defended the department's decision last March to get rid of a
"people-to-people" education license that allowed Americans to travel to
Cuba for educational purposes unrelated to academic course work.

"The license had increasingly been abused for trips that amounted to little
more than tourist travel, thus undermining the intentions of the U.S.
sanctions against Cuba. So we got rid of it." Snow said.

The 10 companies named in Monday's action a Travel companies: Canada
Inc., Montreal and Quebec; Corporacion Cimex S.A., Havana and all other
locations worldwide; Havanatur S.A., Havana and other cities in Cuba;
Havanatur, S.A., Buenos Aires, Argentina; Havanatur Bahamas Ltd, Nassau;
Havantaur Chile S.A., Santiago, Chile; Cubanacan Group, Havana; Cubanacan
International B.V., Zevenhuizen, Netherlands; and Cubanacan U.K., Limited,
London.

The gift company: La Compania Tiendas Universo, S.A., Cuba, and operates an
Internet shopping site, www.cuba-shop.net.


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"james_anatidae" wrote in message ...
"Mark Hewitt" wrote in message
...
Mindbogglingly stupid!

Agreed and it's also hypocritical to believe that trade with Cuba is wrong
because it is communist, but trading with China and Vietnam is just fine.

Which ignores the actual reason for the Cuba ban, but it does make
it easier to call them hypocritical.

"me" wrote in message
om...
"james_anatidae" wrote in message
...
"Mark Hewitt" wrote in
message
...
Mindbogglingly stupid!

Agreed and it's also hypocritical to believe that trade with Cuba is
wrong
because it is communist, but trading with China and Vietnam is just
fine.

Which ignores the actual reason for the Cuba ban, but it does make
it easier to call them hypocritical.

And what would that reason be? Human rights violations? Because we all
know China and Vietnam treat their populations with kid gloves.

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james_anatidae wrote:

"me" wrote in message
om...

"james_anatidae" wrote in message

...

"Mark Hewitt" wrote in message
...

Mindbogglingly stupid!

Agreed and it's also hypocritical to believe that trade with Cuba is wrong
because it is communist, but trading with China and Vietnam is just fine.

Which ignores the actual reason for the Cuba ban, but it does make
it easier to call them hypocritical.

And what would that reason be? Human rights violations? Because we all
know China and Vietnam treat their populations with kid gloves.


We all should remember that it is because the Cuban government too over
the property of some US fat cats. That was the initial justification. FFM