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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Bill easing travel ban to Cuba withdrawn
A House bill that would
have eased U.S. restrictions on travel to
Cuba was withdrawn in a defeat for opponents
of U.S. sanctions on the communist-ruled
island.
By Pablo Bachelet, pbachelet@herald.com.
Posted on Thu, Sep. 16, 2004.
WASHINGTON - Opponents of U.S. restrictions
on travel to Cuba suffered a defeat Wednesday
when an amendment that would have denied
funding for enforcement was withdrawn from
a House of Representatives bill, the first
such setback in five years.
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., the sponsor of
the initiative, blamed election-year politics
for his decision to withdraw the amendment.
''Unfortunately, the timing of this legislation
this year does not lend itself to a reasoned
and thoughtful debate about our policy toward
Cuba,'' he said.
The setback marks a shift from previous
years, when a growing number of lawmakers
has backed initiatives to roll back travel
restrictions. A similar amendment passed
the House and Senate last year, but was
later dropped in a conference committee
under a veto threat from the White House.
This year, supporters of the travel restrictions
were more aggressive and enjoyed the backing
of the Bush administration and the House
leadership, said an aide close to Flake.
Even if it had passed, a tight vote would
have set a difficult precedent for future
votes on the issue, he added.
The amendment, attached to a broader Treasury
and Transportation appropriations bill,
would have rendered the travel restrictions
useless by denying officials funding to
pursue violators.
President Bush backs the travel restrictions,
arguing that tourist dollars help sustain
a communist dictatorship on the island.
This summer, he further tightened the travel
restrictions by cutting the frequency of
family visits, from once a year to once
every three years. The move was decried
by opponents as pandering to the key Cuban
American vote in Florida and an attack on
family values.
'A GREAT VICTORY'
Those in favor of the travel ban were pleased
with Flake's decision to withdraw his amendment.
''This is a great victory for the Cuban
people, and it's a huge defeat for Fidel
Castro,'' said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
R-Fla. "Congressman Flake knew he did
not have the votes today to pass the amendment.''
Those against travel restrictions could
still score a victory if the House approves
other, narrower initiatives. Rep. Jim Davis,
D-Fla., plans to introduce an amendment
next week to the same Treasury and Transportation
appropriations bill to reverse the tighter
restrictions that Bush enacted in July.
Ros-Lehtinen said these initiatives were
"peripheral.''
"We may not win those, but this [Flake's]
is the one amendment that we needed to defeat.
That's the one we had been focusing on.''
NOT GIVING UP
Flake said Tuesday that he would withdraw
the amendment if it did not have enough
votes to pass. In his Wednesday floor speech
he made it clear that he was not giving
up. ''Our efforts will resume as soon as
the electoral smoke clears,'' he said.
The U.S. restrictions bar tourists from
traveling to Cuba but allow Cuban Americans,
academics and journalists to go. Legitimate
visitors are limited to spending $50 a day.
The tightened restrictions have come under
fire by a broad coalition of travel and
trade groups, moderate farm-state Republicans
and most Democrats.
Cuba escapes worst of Ivan's onslaught
By Nancy San Martin, nsanmartin@herald.com.
Posted on Wed, Sep. 15, 2004.
After days of nail-biting tensions, Cuba
on Tuesday ducked the worst of Hurricane
Ivan, a Category 5 monster whose 150-mph
winds and rain tore up roofs and power lines
across a swath of western Cuba but apparently
claimed no lives.
''It was like the devil,'' 56-year-old
Maritza Quintana, a resident of Babineye
near the island's southwestern coast, said
of the storm that lashed western Cuba for
24 hours. "It lasted so long; it was
a phenomenon.''
In the westernmost province of Pinar del
Río, all electricity remained off
and roads were littered with downed pylons,
power lines and trees. Flooding remained
in isolated spots, some farm fields were
flattened and some houses had lost their
roofs to Ivan's winds.
Ivan's 12-foot tidal surges leveled dozens
of houses in the coastal town of Cortés.
Some homes were still inhabited even though
Cuba's Civil Defense had reported that all
its townspeople were evacuated long before
the storm hit.
''It felt like the roof was going to fly
off,'' said Tamara Echeverri, 28, a Cortés
resident whose house was flooded by the
waves after she moved to a neighbor's house.
Her mother-in-law's home on the shoreline
was flattened by the waves.
But many houses and buildings appeared
to have been spared from total destruction
and there were no reports of deaths or significant
injuries hours after Ivan had brushed by
Cuba and entered the Gulf of Mexico, heading
for a projected landfall near the Mississippi-Alabama
state line Thursday morning.
TREES, LINES DOWN
The provincial capital city of Pinar del
Río showed no serious damage, though
the surrounding area was littered with downed
trees and power lines, flattened banana
plantations and overflowing rivers. Two
radio and TV towers also collapsed.
''The trees are all on the ground. The
pines along the coast are all lying on the
ground, like a giant rug,'' Osvaldo Pla,
a ham radio operator for the Miami-based
Brothers to the Rescue, quoted a radio aficionado
in the province as saying.
But a handful of vendors showed up at the
provincial capital's farmers' market Tuesday
to open for business.
''The agricultural fair opened in the morning,
even though only four or five vendors were
selling and with just a little merchandise,''
an artist and gallery director who went
to the market told The Herald in a telephone
interview.
''It was a very intense storm, but the
people were very prepared,'' the man said.
"Those of us under 50 were told that
we had never seen anything like what was
coming. But, happily, the damage really
has not been as bad as we thought it could
be.''
The region's precious tobacco crop, the
communist-run island's third-largest export,
also appeared to have fared well.
AIRPORT TO REOPEN
In Havana, José Martí International
Airport was scheduled to reopen and schoolchildren
also were expected to return to classes
today.
More than 100 water trucks moved about
the capital dispensing drinking water where
needed, and local bus service was spotty
because most of the vehicles had been diverted
to transport the record 1.6 million people
evacuated from coastal and flood-prone areas.
According to Cuba's national meteorological
service, Ivan's eye wall brushed Cape San
Antonio -- on the western tip of Pinar del
Río province -- between 7 p.m. and
8:30 p.m. Monday, carrying sustained winds
of up to 156 mph.
Winds of 120 mph flogged the province's
westernmost city of Sandino, while in Santa
Lucia and Isabel Rubio gusts of 84 mph were
recorded, according to the newspaper Granma.
Ivan killed at least 68 people as it crossed
the Caribbean. It was the second hurricane
to hit Cuba in a month, after Hurricane
Charley killed five and caused $1 billion
in damages.
The unanticipated relief from catastrophic
damage in Cuba from Ivan's fury led some
to thank God.
''I was very nervous because the situation
was very, very bad for awhile,'' a woman
from Pinar del Río
told The Herald by telephone Tuesday. "I
was praying to God constantly that he would
protect us and I believe he did.''
CASTRO HAILS 'VICTORY'
Government officials chalked up the absence
of significant damages to its warlike preparations,
including mandatory evacuations and almost
constant warnings on television and radio.
''At 5 a.m. police went into [the town
of] Carlos Manuel with buses to take people
out by force. The order was that they had
to make sure not one life was lost,'' a
man from Pinar del Río told The Herald
by telephone.
Castro himself declared victory. ''We have
turned a tragedy into a victory, as we usually
do,'' the 78-year-old told official media
during a visit to Pinar del Río.
But a group of Cubans at a roadside stop
in the Pinar del Río town of San
Juan y Martínez jokingly credited
Ivan's miss to Castro's long-alleged powers
of Santeria, Cuba's mixture of Catholic
and African beliefs.
''He moved his shells,'' one of them said,
referring to the snail and sea shells used
by Santeria priests to divine the future
and appeal to their gods.
Herald staff writers
Alfonso Chardy, Elaine de Valle and Renato
Pérez contributed to this report.
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