The U.S. government suspended the license of one of the largest local companies organizing trips to Cuba.

BY OSCAR CORRAL

The U.S. Treasury Department this week began a crackdown on illegal travel to Cuba, suspending the license of one of South Florida's largest Cuba travel agencies -- La Estrella de Cuba.

The move could affect tens of thousands of people who have been searching for ways to travel to Cuba from the United States in the wake of the Bush administration's tightened travel restrictions imposed in 2004.

Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said Thursday that the Office of Foreign Assets Control is conducting on-site audits at agencies that do business with Cuba, aiming to complete 25 audits this year.

``Instances of serious license violations may result in license suspension, cease-and-desist orders or penalties imposed under the Trading With the Enemy Act.''

The move comes just days after OFAC cleared the way for the Cuban national baseball team to play in the World Baseball Classic, a decision celebrated by many in Congress and Major League Baseball but scorned by Cuban-American congressional representatives.

Millerwise said OFAC had so far suspended one Cuba travel license.

Pierre Galoppi, owner of La Estrella de Cuba, which has several offices in South Florida, said OFAC agents handed his managers at various stores a letter Monday explaining that they no longer could book travel to Cuba.

''I cannot take any new customers,'' Galoppi explained. ``Our license has been suspended: the travel service provider, the carrier service provider, and the remittance forwarder. Obviously, we're not pleased with it. It comes as a surprise.''

Estrella de Cuba, one of the biggest of about 250 licensed Cuba travel agencies nationwide, booked 300 to 500 passengers to Cuba every month, Galoppi said.

`TECHNICAL PROCEDURE'

The suspension was based on ''a violation based on a technical procedure,'' Galoppi said, declining to explain in greater detail. He said that all travel to Cuba booked through his agency before Monday will be honored but that no more trips can be booked.

The Bush administration has been tightening restrictions and enforcing them more aggressively, arguing that travel to Cuba helps prop up the communist government.

Earlier this month, OFAC targeted members of Pastors for Peace and the Venceremos Brigade, U.S. groups that have long organized trips to Cuba in open defiance of U.S. restrictions. OFAC sent letters to about 200 people who traveled under the groups' licenses asking them to provide information on their latest trips, which could lead to fines of $7,500 per member.

For the past year and a half, OFAC has received complaints from congressional representatives of religious institutions with licenses to travel to Cuba -- particularly Santero groups -- abusing their privileges by sending non-believers under their religious licenses.

Those abuses began after the Bush administration imposed strict restrictions on Cuba travel in 2004, forcing Cuban-Americans who wanted to go to the island to look for creative solutions, said Jose Montoya, head of the Sacerdocio Lucumi Shango Eyeife in Miami, one of the Santero groups whose license was suspended.

Another Santeria group lost its license last year: Santa Yemaya Ministries, run by Fabio Galoppi, Pierre Galoppi's brother. Pierre Galoppi said that license was revoked.

The Santeria groups went from licensing a few dozen passengers for Cuba travel before 2004 to licensing thousands in the months after the new restrictions kicked in, Montoya said.

Now there appears to be a new twist. After OFAC cracked down on the Santeria licenses last year, thousands of people who traveled to Cuba with Santero groups have been traveling to Cuba again under Christian group licenses.

Groups with licenses to travel to Cuba, including religious groups, had a Jan. 20 deadline to report to OFAC the names of people who went to Cuba and the license they used.

''Those people are violating the law,'' Montoya said. ``If you travel as a Santero one year, how are you going to travel as a Christian the next?''

Galoppi said he and his lawyers are ''working diligently'' to correct any mistakes that may have been made.

PLEASED

Congressional representatives said Thursday that they were pleased with OFAC's move.

''OFAC is merely implementing the laws regulating travel to Cuba, which have been clearly spelled out for months and years,'' said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, through spokesman Alex Cruz.

``Some are exploiting the suffering and anxiety of the Cuban people, divided by Castro in order to make money on these trips.''

Pedro Gonzalez-Munne, owner of Cuba Promotions, an agency that promotes travel to Cuba, said OFAC's crackdown could cause Cuba to respond by cutting off direct flights from the United States.

''This is excessive,'' Gonzalez-Munne said.

``This is no longer about regulation or the embargo, but of a morbid and stupid hate from one group toward another. This is an act of aggression against Cuban families.''

It's illegal for Americans to travel to Cuba without a license, though some people attempt to do so through a third country, such as Mexico, with the understanding that Cuban officials will not stamp their U.S. passports.

In 2004, the administration collected $1.5 million in fines from 894 people caught traveling to Cuba without a license.