wigstheone
Sep 6, 01, 7:59 am
"See Cuba before Castro dies." Travel hipsters have been chanting that mantra, spurred on by reports that 75-year-old Fidel has fainted, is in ill health, or can no longer deliver five-hour-long speeches in the blazing sun.
But just as travel to Cuba is escalating, with tens of thousands of Americans going last year, the Bush Administration is cracking down. Many tourists are canceling trips, and organizations that offer legal excursions under the exempted category of cultural exchanges are getting tougher about whom they'll take. "It's very distressing," says Sandra Levinson, who runs study trips from her Center for Cuban Studies in New York. "We are self-censoring because it seems the Bush Administration is enforcing the rules much more strictly."
While travel itself is not illegal, U.S. laws prohibit American tourists from spending money there. But starting in May, the Treasury Dept. says it sent more than 400 letters to tourists telling them they'd been caught. The Clinton Administration sent 188 letters in 2000, with fines averaging $3,000. This year, fines are averaging $7,500. The travelers were spotted by U.S. Customs agents transiting in Toronto or the Bahamas or their passports had a Cuba stamp--sometimes from trips two or three years ago. The Center for Constitutional Rights, which defends travelers to Cuba, is getting 10 calls a week, triple last year's caseload, and can't take any more.
Meantime, word is filtering down to would-be Cuba-goers. "I don't think I should go now," says a banker who had planned an October trip. Just what the Bush Administration had in mind.
http://www.businessweek.com/@@szTg6mQQDswp*wMA/premium/content/01_37/c3748009.htm
But just as travel to Cuba is escalating, with tens of thousands of Americans going last year, the Bush Administration is cracking down. Many tourists are canceling trips, and organizations that offer legal excursions under the exempted category of cultural exchanges are getting tougher about whom they'll take. "It's very distressing," says Sandra Levinson, who runs study trips from her Center for Cuban Studies in New York. "We are self-censoring because it seems the Bush Administration is enforcing the rules much more strictly."
While travel itself is not illegal, U.S. laws prohibit American tourists from spending money there. But starting in May, the Treasury Dept. says it sent more than 400 letters to tourists telling them they'd been caught. The Clinton Administration sent 188 letters in 2000, with fines averaging $3,000. This year, fines are averaging $7,500. The travelers were spotted by U.S. Customs agents transiting in Toronto or the Bahamas or their passports had a Cuba stamp--sometimes from trips two or three years ago. The Center for Constitutional Rights, which defends travelers to Cuba, is getting 10 calls a week, triple last year's caseload, and can't take any more.
Meantime, word is filtering down to would-be Cuba-goers. "I don't think I should go now," says a banker who had planned an October trip. Just what the Bush Administration had in mind.
http://www.businessweek.com/@@szTg6mQQDswp*wMA/premium/content/01_37/c3748009.htm