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US Treasury blocks business by 10 Cuban companies, cracks down on travel to Cuba

MIAMI, 9 (AFP) - US Treasury Secretary John Snow said the United States is cutting off the business of 10 Cuban-owned companies working with Americans in an effort to keep funds from flowing to the Cuban government.

"We're cracking down. We mean business," Snow said. "We're cutting off American dollars headed to Fidel Castro, period."

Nine of the companies are travel agencies and one is a gift package forwarding service, Snow said. The government- and civilian-owned businesses are located in Cuba, Argentina, the Bahamas, Canada, Chile, the Netherlands and Britain.

The Treasury Department blocked property from these businesses that was in the hands of people subject to US jurisdiction, he said.

It also forbade people within US authority from engaging in transactions with the Cuban companies without Treasury permission, he added.

"These companies have been providing easy access to Cuba to those US individuals who chose to break the law," he said. "Today's action will put a stop to that, and a stop to another illegal pathway for US dollars to Castro's wallet."

Unless given a special exemption, US citizens are forbidden from spending money in Cuba, creating a de facto travel ban that if broken can cost an individual a fine of up to 55,000 dollars.

The United States broke off diplomatic ties with the communist island decades ago and instituted a full economic embargo in 1961.

The Treasury Department has decided to crack down on illegal transactions with Cuba.

Since October 10, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has opened 264 civil cases and three criminal investigations against Americans suspected of traveling to Cuba, Snow said.

More than 500 US Customs inspectors have been trained to specifically catch Americans who violate the travel ban, he said.

"We expect that this will result in an increase in OFAC civil penalties imposed," he said.

OFAC has suspended licenses it issued to two organizations that had been authorized to go to Cuba for humanitarian or religious activities.

"OFAC is now investigating allegations that the licensees may have engaged in activities outside the scope of their licenses," Snow said.

Cuban Criticizes Brown Over Comments

DALLAS, 8 (AP) - Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said Sunday that Detroit Pistons and U.S. Olympic basketball coach Larry Brown wasn't qualified to criticize the stance Cuban and other owners have taken against international play by their athletes.

"This is a topic that's easy for Larry to comment on," Cuban said in an e-mail to The Dallas Morning News. "He has never had to write the check for an NBA payroll in his life."

Brown said in an interview with the newspaper during the Pistons' trip to Dallas on Saturday that he finds it disingenuous that Cuban and other owners question if it is in the best interest of their teams to allow their players to compete in the Olympics.

He believes the presence of NBA players on the 1992 Dream Team helped develop many of the foreign players now in the NBA.

"If the Dream Team didn't go, maybe he wouldn't have half his players," Brown said of Cuban. "Maybe these kids would be playing soccer or something else. That makes me sick."

The newspaper reported on its Web site Sunday night that Cuban issued an e-mail response after seeing a transcript of Brown's comments.

"If things don't work out, a player gets injured or he doesn't like the way things are going, he can do what he has done everywhere else, just leave," Cuban wrote. "As the owner of the team, I can't do that. I am responsible to everyone in the organization, particularly the fans, who much prefer watching our best players, playing at the top of their game.

"Larry is a great coach, and that is exactly what he should stick to," Cuban said. "When he is responsible for a hundred million dollars or more in contracts, then I will respect his opinion on the subject."

Cuban, who acknowledged the positive impact the Dream Team had on the worldwide appeal of basketball, said it may be time to stop looking at the Olympics as a marketing tool for professional sports.

He also suggested that USA Basketball fill its roster with college players.

"Or better yet, why doesn't coach Brown quit the Pistons and donate his services and enough money to support a program that pays college-age players a stipend to be part of USA Basketball and represent our country?" Cuban said. "Now that would be patriotic."

Cuban suggested the players could play for USA Basketball rather than a college and practice full time in Colorado Springs, Colo., where other Olympic teams practice.

"To help out, I would even match however much coach Brown donated to the cause and help raise money for the team," Cuban said.

U.S. Denies Visa to Cuban Minister

MOBILE, Ala. 8 - U.S. officials blocked a Cuban minister from coming to America to speak at several Alabama churches for Black History Month, denying the pastor a visa to travel.

The Rev. Raul Suarez, of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Havana, canceled his trip this month. State Department officials on Friday declined to comment on Suarez's application, citing confidentiality rules. Officials at the U.S. Interests Section, the American mission in Havana, also declined to comment.

"Our policy is that we do not comment on individual cases," said Brenda Greenberg, a State Department spokeswoman. "It's a privacy issue."

Suarez was invited by the Society Mobile-La Habana, a Mobile-based sister cities group. The visit was to have included speeches to local civic groups and sermons at area churches.

Members said they received a call Friday from a State Department official informing them that Suarez's visa application, submitted Nov. 10, had been denied.

"Whatever the reason, the decision is not helping America's reputation in the world for freedom to travel," said Jay Higginbotham, the group's board chairman.

Higginbotham was told Suarez was refused a visa because he is a deputy on Cuba's National Assembly, or parliament. The U.S. government has traditionally denied visas to many higher-ranking Cuban officials and leaders of the island's Communist Party.

But, Suarez told The Associated Press that he has never belonged to the Communist Party, nor any other political organization in Cuba.

"Every country has the right to grant a visa or not, but I worry about shutting down such a fluid exchange between the churches of both countries," he said.

Suarez, who serves as director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center in Havana, also was scheduled to walk a portion of the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail and visit other significant sites of the civil rights movement.

Suarez said he has received visas to the United States several times over the past decade, most recently in 1999.

While Cuba became officially atheist in the years after the 1959 revolution that brought President Fidel Castro to power, the government has since shifted from open hostility to a wary embrace of religious organizations.

Feds Enforcing Cuba Travel Restrictions

By Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press Writer, Mon Feb 9.

WASHINGTON - 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 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 are: 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.

On the Net: OFAC: http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/eotffc/ofac/

Tsy's Snow Announces Tougher Cuba Travel Ban Enforcement

MIAMI, 9 - (Dow Jones) - The Bush administration is cracking down on violators of a U.S. ban on travel and some types of remittances to Cuba.

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow on Monday announced the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) is blocking the assets of nine travel agencies and one trading business that helps U.S. residents purchase and send goods to Cuba.

"These companies have been providing easy access to Cuba for those U.S. individuals who choose to break the law," Snow said in a speech to a group of Cuban-American business leaders. "Today's action will put a stop to that and a stop to another illegal pathway for U.S. dollars to Castro's wallet."

OFAC said the action means that all properties of these entities in U.S. jurisdiction are frozen and people in the U.S. are forbidden from undertaking transactions with these groups without permission from OFAC. Most of the companies are based in Havana, Cuba, but others include companies based in Argentina, Chile, Canada, the U.K., the Netherlands and the Bahamas.

"Until Castro's reign has ended, any money that is spent in Cuba for products or tourism benefits only that oppressive government, not the hardworking people of Cuba," Snow said.

The renewed attention to enforcing the long-standing travel ban comes just as campaigning is getting underway for presidential elections in November. Cuban- Americans have traditionally been strong supporters of Republicans in a key state rich in electoral votes.

Snow is traveling in Florida just after a Group of Seven finance ministers meeting in Boca Raton over the weekend. He will travel on to Tampa and Jacksonville, before heading back to Washington on Tuesday.

Elizabeth.Price@dowjones.com

Cubans Denied Visas to Attend Grammys

By Andrea Rodriguez, Associated Press Writer.

HAVANA, 5 - Five Cuban acts nominated for Grammy Awards, including Ibrahim Ferrer of the Buena Vista Social Club, have been denied U.S. visas needed to attend Sunday's ceremony in Los Angeles, a top Culture Ministry official said Thursday.

"Something as noble as music is being converted into a policy against Cuba," Vice Minister of Culture Abel Acosta told a news conference.

Surrounded by some of the Cuban musicians nominated for awards, including Ferrer, Acosta showed journalists the letters from the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, denying their visa requests.

The letters cited a section of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Law that says the president can deny entry to foreigners when their visit is deemed "detrimental to the interests of the United States."

Officials at the American mission declined to comment on the case, citing confidentiality rules.

Cuban visa applicants are subject to a 1985 U.S. presidential proclamation that with few exceptions prohibits Cuban government officers and employees from entering the United States, said a State Department official in Washington, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

"Most Cuban artists are compensated by the Cuban government and are therefore employees" of the Cuban government and proceeds from their performances "financially enriches the Castro regime," the official said.

Ferrer and the four other Cuban acts who received all five nominations in the best tropical Latin album category were denied visas.

Ferrer was nominated for his album "Buenos Hermanos."

The other nominees and their albums are: Amadito Valdes, "Bajando Gervasio"; Barbarito Torres, "Barbarito Torres"; Guillermo Rubalcaba, "Pasado y presente Soneros de Verde Presents Rubalcaba"; and the group Septeto Nacional Ignacio Pineiro, "Poetas del Son."

Because Cuba is classified by the U.S. government as a state sponsor of terrorism, more extensive background checks are required for citizens of the communist island who apply for visas. The process can take from eight to 10 weeks.

Ferrer and pianist Chucho Valdes were among the Cuban artists who missed the Latin Grammy Awards in Miami last fall because their visas didn't arrive in time.

American officials at the time said most of the musicians applied for the visas too late under stricter rules and that several - including Ferrer and Valdes - didn't apply at all.  

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