According to the new regulations, licenses will no longer be issued to "organizations that sponsor people-to-people educational exchanges to take individuals under their auspices on educational trips to Cuba unrelated to academic course work." Next to family visits by Cuban-Americans, the largest number of U.S. residents who legally travel to Cuba each year do so under this type of license.

"This is an outrageous situation," said Bob Guild of Marazul Tours in an April 3 interview. Marazul is a travel agency that specializes in travel between the United States and Cuba. "This is the first serious rollback by the government of the licensing guidelines in 10 or 12 years. These are trips organized by educational institutions, museums, and groups with a long and established record of educational work."

Thousands of people travel each year to Cuba under license from the government. Tens of thousands more visit the island annually without seeking a government license.

A Treasury Department document, titled, "Cuba: What You Need to Know About the U.S. Embargo," was released the same day the new restrictions were announced. It states that restrictions on travel to and trade with Cuba "affect all U.S. citizens and permanent residents wherever they are located, all people and organizations physically in the United States, and all branches and subsidiaries of U.S. organizations throughout the world..."

"The basic goal of the sanctions," the document reads, "is to isolate the Cuban government economically and deprive it of U.S. dollars. Criminal penalties for violating the sanctions include up to 10 years in prison, $1,000,000 in corporate fines, and $250,000 in individual fines. Civil penalties up to $55,000 per violation may also be imposed."

An article in the April 6 San Francisco Chronicle on the new restrictions said that "Those licenses, which were authorized on a case-by-case basis, ended up becoming a loophole for groups to travel to Cuba when the educational aspect was barely evident, Treasury Department spokesman Tony Fratto told the Associated Press. Salsa dancing, baseball, and hiking tours were among those granted permits.

"The Treasury Department said it would honor existing one-year licenses but would not renew them. The new regulations are temporary but are expected to go into effect in May after a comment period."

San Francisco-based Global Exchange, which sent more than 2,000 U.S. residents to Cuba last year on licensed trips, is considering filing a lawsuit to try to block the new regulations, according to the group’s Cuba program director, Ana Perez. Global Exchange and other groups plan to continue offering licensed trips to Cuba until their permits expire at the end of this year.

Over the past decade, the Treasury Department has enforced travel restrictions with increasing aggressiveness, seeking fines of between $2,000 and $7,500 against those who are deemed to have traveled to Cuba "illegally."The number of cases opened by the Treasury Department against such individuals has dramatically increased--from 165 in 1996 to 1,155 in the first six months of 2001.

Richard Newcomb, director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, complained in a February 2002 report to the U.S. Senate that the increased crackdown on travel to Cuba has caused an "extremely heavy drain on finite enforcement and legal resources."

"At this time," Newcomb stated, "OFAC devotes 5% of its budget...to the administration and enforcement of restrictions involving travel to Cuba."

Guild, of Marazul Tours, said that since Newcomb’s 2002 report the enforcement of the travel restrictions has continued at a similar rate. Last year, about 100 people who traveled to Cuba agreed to pay $1,000 each.

While thousands who refuse to cow to government bullying often avoid the fines, many others don’t, in the face of threats from the Treasury Department. Newcomb bragged in his 2002 report that many "agree to informal settlements" faced with government intimidation.
 
 
Related articles:
Cuban authorities arrest, convict 85 in response to U.S.-planned provocations
‘Independent libraries’ in Cuba a U.S.-promoted fraud  
 
 
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