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Congress
Leaves Cuba Travel Ban Alone Jim Burns,
CNSNews.com Saturday, Oct. 27, 2001
The U.S. ban
on Americans traveling to Cuba remains in
effect, for the time being.
Congressional
negotiators Thursday killed an amendment to
an appropriations bill that would have
repealed the 40-year-old ban on Americans
traveling to Cuba.
Insiders
predict there will be no more attempts to
lift the ban this year.
House and
Senate negotiators dropped the Cuba ban from
a $33 billion bill to fund the Treasury
Department and other government operations.
Rep. Jeff
Flake, R-Ariz., who favored dropping the
travel ban, blamed the inaction on last
month's terrorist attacks. "The Senate
agreed not to attach anything controversial
to its bill. The timing wasn't good,"
he said.
Flake met
with Fidel Castro in Cuba last month. He is
still confident that Congress eventually
will lift the travel ban.
Rep. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., a Cuban exile and
outspoken Castro critic, was happy that the
travel ban will stand. It will deprive the
Castro regime of much-needed funds, she
said.
She called
Cuba a "state sponsor of terrorism ...
which is involved in sharing intelligence
with terrorists with links to Osama bin
Laden."
President
Bush continues to adamantly oppose lifting
the travel ban and economic sanctions
against Cuba until Castro calls for free
elections and releases political prisoners.
But even
though the travel ban remains in effect,
Continental Airlines in Miami announced
Thursday that its Continental Connection
would begin providing 20 additional weekly
charter flights to Cuba beginning Nov. 1.
Most flights
will originate from Miami, because it is one
of the few U.S. cities allowed to have
airline connections with Cuba.
Only
Americans with permission from the U.S.
government can take the charter flights.
American
journalists, humanitarian workers, academic
researchers and some Cuban-Americans usually
are granted permission, which allows them
passage on the charter flights.
Those without
permission can fly to another country such
as Mexico or Jamaica to reach Cuba, but they
risk being fined by the U.S. government.
Copyright
CNSNews.com
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