By Anita Snow, .c The Associated Press
HAVANA (AP) - More than 600 American college students aboard a cruise ship pulled into the docks of Cuba's capital to learn about the communist island nation still isolated by decades of U.S. trade sanctions.
It was the second year in a row that the University of Pittsburgh's Semester at Sea included Havana on its annual tour of international ports. The floating campus, which arrived in Havana on Monday, also stops in Brazil, South Africa, India, Vietnam and Japan.
Much of the trip will revolve around the Americans spending time with Cuban students, giving them the opportunity to ``share ideas, discuss and learn about each other,'' said Les McCabe, chief administrative affairs officer for Semester at Sea.
Americans, he said, know very little of their Caribbean neighbor.
Among those on the ship was Essence Ward, 20, a University of Pittsburgh student who was so impressed by her visit last year that she came again. This time she arrived as an intern working for a sister city program linking Pittsburgh with Matanzas, Cuba.
She also came back with strong views about Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy who has become the focus of an international custody battle between his father in Cuba and his relatives in Miami.
The boy was found clinging to an inner tube off the Florida coast on Nov. 25. His mother and 10 other Cubans died in their ill-fated attempt to reach the United States.
``We have been rallying, holding press conferences and educating people in Pittsburgh about the case,'' she said. She believes Elian must be returned to Cuba and to his family.
McCabe said, though, that many of the other students had not yet formed an opinion on the case, and that the Semester at Sea program did not have an official view.
Despite the conflict over Elian, relations between Cuba and the U.S. have been warming, and more people are visiting the island than in decades before.
In the last week, Oregon high school students held a debate with Cuban students, and the baseball team from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., traveled here for a game with a Cuban team.
Semester at Sea was able to visit Cuba under a special license from the U.S. Treasury Department, allowing them to bypass a 1960s embargo prohibiting Americans from spending money on the island.
AP-NY-01-25-00 0640EST
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. |