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U.S.
clamps down on defiant travelers to Cuba
BY
TIM JOHNSON
tjohnson@krwashington.com
WASHINGTON
-- U.S. citizens who defy restrictions on
travel to Cuba increasingly are returning
stateside to find an unexpected souvenir: A
letter from the feds demanding they pay
$7,500 or so in fines.
The
number of such penalty letters has suddenly
spiked, and unsuspecting U.S. travelers are
yelping in surprise at the potential cost of
their travels.
``I
think it's very stupid,'' said Donna, a
64-year-old retired social worker in Chicago
who asked that her last name not be used.
After a bike trip to Cuba, she got notice in
June that the Treasury Department plans to
levy $7,650 in fines against her. ``They
should leave people like me alone who do no
harm.''
From
May 4 to July 30, a division of the U.S.
Treasury Department that monitors travel to
Cuba sent out 443 letters seeking average
fines of $7,500 -- a sharp increase from the
74 letters mailed from Jan. 3 to May 3.
Those
receiving penalty letters include New York
City high school students and teachers,
scuba divers, cyclists, a Massachusetts bird
watcher, a Santeria buff from the Pacific
Northwest -- a panoply of Americans
intrigued by the tropical communist bastion
of President Fidel Castro and willing to
wriggle under the legal trip wire. Interest
in Cuba has surged despite -- or perhaps
because of -- a longstanding law that
forbids U.S. citizens from spending money on
the island.
The
travel restrictions are now in roiling
waters as the White House and Congress veer
in sharply different directions on policy
toward Cuba. Staking out a hard line,
President Bush pledged July 13 to detect and
punish those who visit Cuba illegally ``to
the fullest extent with a view toward
preventing unlicensed and excessive travel .
. . ''
A
majority of the U.S. House, meanwhile, wants
to facilitate travel to Cuba. On a 240-186
vote, the House on July 26 denied the
executive branch any funds to enforce the
travel restrictions. The measure now heads
to the Senate, where observers say it could
pass in the autumn.
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