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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
New rule restricts American boaters
from sailing to island
President Bush signs off on regulations
that a diplomat says will stop 'pleasure
boating traffic to Cuba.'
By Carol Rosenberg, crosenberg@herald.com.
Posted on Fri, Feb. 27, 2004 in The Miami
Herald.
President Bush on Thursday strengthened
emergency powers to choke off previously
legal fishing and yacht trips to Cuba.
Since 1996, 1,500 U.S. pleasure boats have
received Coast Guard permits to tie up in
Cuba, said a U.S. diplomat. Now, after a
three-year interagency process, the Bush
administration has found a formula ''to
stop this pleasure boating traffic to Cuba,
which has the effect of putting money in
the pocket of the regime,'' the diplomat
said.
In Washington, the three Republican Cuban-American
Congress members from Miami issued a statement
celebrating the move.
Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart called
it "another firm step in the global
war on terrorism. . . . President Bush's
commendable action will reduce the resources
available to the Cuban terrorist regime.''
But in Key West, a charter boat operator
who has taken part in Cuban Blue Marlin
tournaments based at the Hemingway Marina
in Havana lamented it as pre-election political
maneuvering.
''If he puts the pressure on Cuba, the
Miami Cubans vote for him and get him back
in the presidency,'' opined Mark Baumgarten,
46, who said he has tied up his 36-foot
Hatteras, The Cowboy, there eight times
with Coast Guard permits.
'UNFAIR'
''It's really unfair because everyone from
Miami gets to fly over there to see their
families and bring over money and medicine,''
he said. "And, here, they don't want
us going over there spreading a few dollars
around the marina because they say it's
helping Castro. But it's all going to him
anyway. It's not making any difference.''
The State Department official, speaking
on condition he not be named, said a range
of different Bush administration agencies
had worked on the measure for three years.
He said the goal was to increase enforcement
of the embargo, and denied it was an election-year
ploy. ''Honestly, we've been working this
for years,'' he said.
Hemingway Marina is known in international
sailing circles as an exotic, well-equipped
port-of-call; Castro opponents call it an
insidious aspect of Cuba's tourism apartheid
-- enticing foreign funds for the government
rather than ordinary Cubans through a market
economy.
Under an earlier 1996 presidential emergency
order, pleasure boaters wanting to visit
Cuba needed to get a Coast Guard permit,
or security pass, to enter Cuban waters
legally.
They had to give an itinerary and list
of passengers, none of whom could be felons,
said Baumgarten. The Coast Guard then issued
the permits.
NEW PROCEDURE
Under the mechanism instituted Thursday,
would-be boaters must now first get a Commerce
Department ''sojourn license,'' the U.S.
diplomat said. But they are not issued to
pleasure trips.
''This denies American pleasure boaters
the ability to travel to Cuba, basically
on vacation,'' he said.
President Bush used the 1,365-word proclamation
to deliver some tough rhetoric.
He said Castro's government "has over
the course of its 45-year existence repeatedly
used violence and the threat of violence
to undermine U.S. policy interests. This
same regime continues in power today, and
has since 1959 maintained a pattern of hostile
actions contrary to U.S. policy interests.''
Bush tightened the restrictions the same
day he lifted a travel ban on Libya, which
was on the U.S. blacklist until it acknowledged
responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am
Flight 103 in 1988.
Visa rule to end for visits by expatriates
Passport-holding Cubans now living elsewhere
will not need visas to visit their homeland
after June 1, the government says.
Posted on Fri, Feb. 27, 2004
HAVANA - (AP) -- Most Cuban-born people
living outside the island can visit the
country of their birth without a visa starting
June 1 if they have a valid Cuban passport,
the communist government confirmed Thursday.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry announced the
upcoming change last fall but did not say
exactly when it would take effect. Lazaro
Hernández, spokesman for the Cuban
Interests Section in Washington, told The
Associated Press the change would occur
June 1.
Starting then, ''Cuban citizens living
in other countries will be able to enter
Cuba with their valid passport,'' Hernández
wrote in an e-mail to The AP's Washington
bureau. The government considers all people
born on the island Cuban citizens, even
if they have taken citizenship in another
country.
The change could affect hundreds of thousands
of Cuban-born people living abroad. Now,
most must obtain a separate Cuban visa to
visit the island of their birth.
The proposed change was announced in September
by Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez
Roque at a meeting with 300 Cuban-Americans
in New York.
RENEWED HOSTILITIES
The Foreign Ministry in Havana later issued
a statement saying the decision was made
despite "the renewed hostilities, the
campaigns of lies, the blockade, the aggressive
statements and terrorist action plans by
the extreme right of Miami against Cuba.''
''This decision constitutes a new signal
of goodwill by the revolutionary government,
which is directed to keep facilitating .
. . contacts between Cubans who live abroad
with their relatives living in Cuba,'' the
statement read.
Some Cuban natives could be excluded from
the new measures ''in cases of exceptional,
repugnant or damaging activity against the
country's interests,'' it added.
The new measure will take affect a few
days after a major immigration conference
with overseas Cubans May 27-29 in Havana.
The acceptance of passports held by Cubans
living abroad is welcome news to some exiles
-- or at least those who are willing to
travel to the island -- who have bristled
at the thought of needing a visa to enter
their homeland.
''You no longer have that contradiction,''
said Francisco Aruca, board chairman of
Marazul charters, which is licensed by the
U.S. Treasury Department to fly to Cuba.
"It's a step toward normalizing travel
for Cubans who want to travel to see their
relatives.''
3 FLIGHTS WEEKLY
Aruca, whose company charters three flights
a week out of Miami and one out of New York,
said the June date comes just in time for
the busy travel months. ''The summer months
are the second-highest season, next to December,''
he said, adding that he hopes word spreads
that passports will not be processed for
verification before April 1.
''That is very important. Because people
will go crazy, sending their passports to
the Cuban Interest Section or agencies like
ours,'' he said.
Herald staff writer Tere Figueras contributed
to this report.
In Havana, hundreds roll in for cigar
festival
Posted on Wed, Feb. 25,
2004
HAVANA - (AP) -- With fireworks exploding
over an old Spanish fort on Havana Bay,
Cuba's Habanos Festival opened this week,
drawing hundreds of foreigners for the annual
tribute to the island's world famous cigars.
Several hundred people gathered Monday
night on the grounds of La Cabana fort,
where they were invited to try a special
San Cristobal brand cigar made for the sixth
annual Habanos Festival.
About 500 cigar merchants and other foreigners
were expected at the event running through
Friday, said Miguel Campoy, an executive
of Habanos S.A., the Cuban-Spanish firm
that markets the island's cigars abroad
and the festival organizer.
Cigar smoke filled the air over the fort
as diners were entertained by salsa music
and tropical dancers. Classic Harley-Davidson
motorcycles from the 1950s were on display.
Unlike past years, no foreign celebrities
or high-ranking government officials were
seen at the opening event.
Probably the most recognizable person seen
Monday was President Fidel Castro's son,
Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart, who sat
at a table close to the stage. The younger
Castro plays no role in the island's communist
government.
Foreigners were paying $1,200 each for
the five-day program, which includes visits
to tobacco fields and factories, and a final
elegant ''Cigar Dinner'' Friday night, traditionally
attended by Fidel Castro.
The dinner will be followed by an auction
of elaborate humidors fashioned of mahogany
and other hardwoods and autographed by Castro.
Although the bearded revolutionary gave
up cigars decades ago, he continues to champion
one of Cuba's most important exports.
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