• What even ‘El Nuevo Herald,’ voice of Miami’s Cuban American
                   National Foundation, called an avalanche of U.S. visitors to the island,
                   has provoked an hysterical but impotent campaign to prevent it

                   BY GABRIEL MOLINA

                   SENATOR Byron Dorgan (Democrat from North Dakota), chairman of
                   the Senate Subcommittee on Treasury Appropriations, revealed that
                   the number of U.S. citizens fined by the Treasury Department for
                   traveling to Cuba has almost quadrupled, from 188 in 2000 to 766 in
                   2001.

                   He emphatically declared that in an attempt to punish Fidel Castro,
                   U.S. citizens are being denied their freedom to travel. Dorgan made
                   these statements at the start of his subcommittee’s hearings on this
                   subject, which began on February 11 of this year.

                   In early 2001 the senator tried to include an amendment in the
                   agricultural appropriations act, permitting financing of food and
                   medicine sales to Cuba. However, after the tragedy of September
                   11, Congress decided not to consider the amendment, leaving out all
                   controversial proposals in order to facilitate budget approval.

                   The U.S. Senate is analyzing two initiatives that could eliminate parts
                   of the blockade against Cuba. One bill’s objective is to authorize the
                   financing of food sales to the island. Such sales have been legal since
                   Congress approved and President Clinton signed a proposal to "ease
                   the embargo," with the limitation that the sales would have to be
                   paid in cash, without any type of public or private financing. The
                   Cuban government, U.S. farmers and legislators who represent them
                   and support the bill, all declared that it is impossible to conduct the
                   sales without financing. However, after Hurricane Michelle, which
                   struck the island last November, the two governments agreed to a
                   $30 million USD cash purchase.

                   Many analysts considered that these sales, although undertaken as
                   an exceptional measure, were a blow to the blockade and convincing
                   evidence of what can be done. The possibility of ending the financial
                   restrictions for the food and medicine sales is now included in a bill by
                   Senator Tom Harkin (Democrat from Iowa), chairman of the Senate
                   Agriculture Committee. The initiative aims to modify the text of the
                   Trade Sanctions Act by authorizing financing, and has already been
                   approved by that committee. After the bill is approved on the Senate
                   floor, it must go to the conference committee, where the two
                   houses’ different versions of the bill must be reconciled.

                   The second bill demands the elimination of funds allocated by the
                   Treasury Department for financing investigations of those who travel
                   to Cuba. The amendment, attached to the budget bill for various
                   government entities, including the Treasury Department, could return
                   to U.S. citizens the freedom to travel to the island.

                   In the mid-2000, Republican members of Congress joined their
                   Democratic counterparts, in both legislative bodies, to approve a bill
                   that would authorize foods and medicine exports, in addition to
                   travel to Cuba. The proposal had been presented by John Ashcroft,
                   then a senator from Missouri and now attorney general, and another
                   representative from the state of Washington, George Nethercutt.

                   On the night of June 26, 2000, Republican Majority Leader Tom
                   DeLay, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Díaz-Balart pressured
                   Nethercutt to accept the financing and other prohibitions, or they
                   would scuttle the proposal as they had the previous year. In 1999
                   another bill had been approved by both the House and the Senate,
                   but was blocked in a political move by the same personalities and
                   never taken to the conference committee. Ashcroft denounced the
                   maneuver as undemocratic, and thus the prohibition on financing was
                   carried over to the 2000 bill.

                   OFAC USES FUNDS FOR PREVENTING TERRORISM TO
                   ENFORCE TRAVEL BAN

                   In his speech to the subcommittee during the hearing, Senator
                   Dorgan explained that the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the
                   Department of Treasury (OFAC) focuses on, among other things, the
                   pursuit of worldwide financing for terrorism. The government
                   proposes increasing the budget by $2 million USD in 2003, he added,
                   and the reason for the hearing is to evaluate what has been
                   happening with respect to the use of the OFAC funds for the
                   persecution of U.S. citizens who travel to Cuba.

                   Dorgan declared that they have received numerous reports about a
                   dramatic increase in such actions, particularly after September 11.
                   One wonders, he went on, if reinforcing the restrictions on traveling
                   to Cuba is the best way of using resources allocated for preventing
                   terrorist attacks.

                   He stated that although the objective of the hearing is not political
                   but to investigate how much of the OFAC’s funding is being used for
                   that purpose, he expressed his opinion that restrictions on traveling
                   to Cuba are obsolete.

                   Dorgan didn’t hide his intentions when considering that the best way
                   to achieve progress in Cuba is to follow the route taken with the
                   former Soviet Union and now being taken with China: more
                   interaction, more travel, more education. He stresses that
                   people-to-people contact brought about the fall of the Soviet Union
                   and he thinks that the same effect could be achieved in Cuba. That is
                   a challenge that the Cuban government will have to face.

                   He also stated that he would very much like to see farming families
                   travel to Cuba to sell their produce unimpeded. Congress members
                   from agricultural states are particularly interested in expanding trade
                   opportunities for their farmers. As an example, Dorgan mentioned
                   what happened in January when a 98-strong delegation from the
                   non-profit Farm Foundation was denied a license to discuss
                   agricultural business here. This was despite the fact that Clinton’s
                   secretary of agriculture and two undersecretaries are Foundation
                   board members.

                   Research by the Reconciliation and Development Fund revealed that
                   in 2001, 21 organizations requested licenses to travel to Cuba, in line
                   with the Clinton administration’s people-to-people policy in 1999 and
                   its decision to increase the number of licenses. Only six were
                   approved, and 14 denied.

                   GROWING REPUDIATION OF ANTI-CUBA MEASURES CREATES
                   HYSTERIA IN MIAMI

                   The rise in the number of fines is a consequence of orders by
                   President Bush, who in July 2001 increased OFAC funding, enabling
                   that agency to employ more staff in order to better monitor travel to
                   Cuba. Nevertheless, last year’s visits by some 160,000 U.S. citizens
                   was the highest since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959.

                   Wayne Smith, who served as head of the U.S. Interest Section at the
                   end of the 1970s and resigned because he disagreed with Reagan’s
                   policies, told the Sun Sentinel on January 15 of this year that travel
                   controls should end, asserting that these restrictions are the most
                   objectionable aspect of U.S. sanctions on Cuba.

                   Smith asks why U.S. farmers cannot trade freely with Cuba, as they
                   do with China and Viet Nam. His answer: according to the Bush
                   administration’s calculations, U.S. farmers’ interests aren’t being
                   taken into account because of the need to guarantee the votes of
                   South Florida’s Cuban-American lobby. He noted that putting aside
                   the economic interests of the majority to meet the special interests
                   of a small group is pretty bad, but if U.S. citizens’ constitutional right
                   to travel is also being denied for that reason, it’s even worse.

                   The emotional temperature among South Florida’s Cubans is so high
                   that Glenn Garvin, TV critic for The Miami Herald, a daily that is
                   known for its frequently servile ties to that sector, published an
                   article on February 19 entitled "CNN’s tips for visiting Cuba cross the
                   line." He wrote, "In a bold bid for the all-important Felons Aged
                   21-55 ratings demographic, the heads of the CNN Headline News
                   offered a detailed primer on how to travel to Cuba illegally." The
                   feature was anchored by Robin Meade, who talked with an
                   Atlanta-based travel consultant Chris McGinnis, who regularly
                   contributes travel pieces to the network.

                   McGinnis first explained how to visit the island legally, admitting
                   [according to Garvin] that "it isn’t easy, since the U.S. government
                   generally only approves trips for officials, journalists, athletes
                   competing in a specific event or those with close family members
                   living in Cuba."

                   According to Garvin, McGinnis then advised how to avoid the legal
                   path and travel through a third country — Nassau in the Bahamas;
                   various Mexican cities; Toronto, Canada; or Montego Bay.

                   "I’ve been watching television for more than 40 years," stated
                   Garvin, "but this was the first time I’d ever seen a network provide a
                   detailed blueprint on how to violate the law." He speculated whether
                   CNN "plans further features on how to freebase cocaine, cheat on
                   your taxes or smuggle a box cutter onto an airplane”

                   "It’s illegal for Americans to visit North Korea, too, but I guarantee
                   that CNN will never do a how-to piece on Pyongyang. Just as I can
                   guarantee that Ted Turner will never travel there to duck hunting with
                   Kim Jong Il," although he did with Fidel Castro.

                   The annoyed critic turned himself into the spokesman for the Cuban
                   American National Foundation and, inspired by the old tyrannical style
                   of Batista followers, also attacked famous news anchorman Dan
                   Rather – for "escorting [Fidel] to his limousine and calling out,
                   ‘Goodbye, Mr. President, take care!’" – and CBS President Les
                   Moonves – because he went to Havana last year "for four days of
                   partying and came back with Castro’s autograph on a cigar box."

                   And he insulted ABC’s Barbara Walters for having once helped Fidel to
                   arrange a dinner for powerful executives from Time, Newsweek,
                   ABC, NPR, The Washington Post and other "elite news media."

                   With a vengeful air, as if he himself had been wounded, he
                   threateningly concluded that in his next column he would provide
                   detailed instructions on how to watch CNN’s satellite broadcasts
                   without paying for them, while clearly saying that this is illegal.