Cuba Travel Ban on House Agenda
By Dawn Gable
HAVANA TIMES, June 26 — On Wednesday, June 30, at 2 pm the full House Committee on Agriculture will hold a business meeting to consider H.R. 4645, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, which would facilitate agricultural sales to Cuba and restore the right of all US-Americans to travel to the island.
If the bill, cosponsored by 62 Representatives, passes through the committee, it may reach a vote by the full House of Representatives soon after the July 4th break.
“This is welcome news to those who think it is long past time to change our outmoded approach to Cuba,” said Anya Landau French of the New America Foundation in a statement to the press.
The US government also maintains a half century economic embargo on Cuba, condemned by almost every country in the world in successive votes at the United Nations.
Restore the rights of people to freely travel to anywhere in the world. Nothing to be scare of. Cuba is a highly educated country and one of the few in the world taha has a govenment working for the peple. Even when USA has iligaly impose an embargo on Cuba, the gobernment manage to provide the best benefits for the people. Cubans have the higest level of educarion which is free andso is health care, there more doctors than anywhere else, I mean doctors who care. One thing they do not have is HMOs, or PPOs, No big corporations exploiting the labor force, no discrimination. No one goes hungry, there is no homelessnes, the justice system is fair, 87% owns the place where they live. How bad is this?? Yeah, it makes the USA look like S;;T. USA has this band because is afraid that people will find out, this small developing country offers people so many more benefits than the filthy rich USA. The Land of the Free don’tl et us go to Cuba!!!
Let people find for themselves what Cuba is all about
If they open the travel to US American citizens will the Cuban exiles that hold American citizenship be treated (for visa purposes) like US citizens or like Cubans.
I bet you that given the amount of money the Cuban Government charges Cuban Americans for visitors visas, they will create a different class of visas for them, thus laughing at the US Goverment by saying “your US citizenship status granted to cuban exiles is not recognized here”
As far as any “greedy US corporation” desperate to do business with Cuba, they should be reminded that this are the same people that with the stroke of a pen, overnight and without warning, confiscated all their assest in the island not too long ago
Cuba would be like The Dominican Republic if this happens just like most of the countries en El Caribe. Thats just what it is. The islands offers nothing more but servicing the tourist trade and Cuba will be no different. Most students in Cuba will start majoring in Hotel Management in college like they do in The Dominican Republic.
There has to be more to offer but sadly most of the skilled jobs that America uses in other countries are from countries in Asia like India, Philippines, and China. For some reason America is not interested in using the Caribbean as the place for customer service or other technical and manufacturing trades that are offered to Asians.
People of the Caribbean are looked at as Servants in my honest opinion. Me being a Cuban American, I don’t like it but that is what I see in the future.
Just don’t lose sight of the very important fact that these things are always about *them* — and never about anyone else; except to maybe screw them (you). The bottom line here is that they want to sell things and make money, and advance their agenda. Nothing else. But If this fact gives cubans some leverage for other matters — all for the better.
“ . . . restore the right of all US-Americans to travel to the island.” Good idea: employment will increase with new police officers hired. Food prices will skyrocket as will prices for hotels and “casas particulares.” Opening up the borders to vacationing/spring break students who are tired of wreaking havoc in Fort Lauderdale and San Padre Island as well as in Mexico is a splendid idea. Opening the doors to the “Ugly American” is a superb idea. The island will be awash with good fortune. Let’em come in droves and populate the island with complaints and ideas as to where to erect the next MacDoanld’s restaurant – a wasteland symbol of American imperialism. I reiterate: open the flood gates. Let the wave of growth and the future crash down upon the island.