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NEWS
US Congress
maintains travel restrictions on Cuba
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Congress
approved a measure maintaining travel restrictions on US citizens to
Cuba, even though both the Senate and the House of Representatives
earlier passed separate measures lifting the 40 year-old ban.
The decision, reached in bargaining around midnight Wednesday, came
after President George W. Bush threatened to veto the measure if
approved, congressional sources said Thursday.
Both the House and the Senate are controlled by lawmakers from Bush's
Republican Party.
The measure -- which technically blocked money funding the enforcement
of the travel ban -- was dropped as House and Senate bargainers agreed
to a budget of nearly 90 billon dollars for the Treasury and
Transportation departments.
The provision was withdrawn "behind closed doors and without giving an
opportunity for the full conference committee to vote," according to a
statement from the Washington Office of Latin America (WOLA).
Officials at the think-tank blamed the Republican leadership, and
described the maneuver as a "travesty."
Senator Max Baucus, the Democratic ranking member on the Senate Finance
Committee, said the actions "violate the will of Congress and set the
stage for a fight when the bill comes to the floor."
For a "few individuals in backroom negotiations to override the will of
a majority of Congress sets a dangerous, undemocratic precedent," said
Baucus, one of the co-authors of the measure.
Republican congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona even declared himself
"disgusted" with the outcome.
"Politics have triumphed again over principle," said Flake. "For the
same reason we will never have a rational farm policy as long as
presidential campaigns begin in Iowa, we will never have a rational Cuba
policy as long as presidential campaigns are perceived to end in
Florida."
However two Cuban-American representatives from Florida -- both
vitriolic opponents of Cuban President Fidel Castro -- were elated with
the outcome.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a distant cousin of Castro, thanked President
George W. Bush for his "strong leadership," which he said is key to
"maintaining sanctions on the Cuban dictatorship until all political
prisoners are liberated and free elections are scheduled in that
enslaved island."
And congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who described the compromise as
"a valiant stand against the cowardly regime of Castro," said that US
legislators "should not allow hard currency from unsuspecting Americans
prop and aid a ruthless regime that thrives on cruelty and violence."
In October the US Senate voted 59-36 to include an amendment effectively
lifting the travel ban.
The House of Representatives approved a similar amendment in September
by a vote of 227-188.
Last week the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee approved a measure
lifting all bans on travel to Cuba by a vote of 13 to 5.
The US Treasury Department estimates that some 160,000 Americans legally
traveled to Cuba in 2002, but tens of thousands also visited the island
illegally travelling through third countries.
On October 10 Bush announced tougher restrictions on US citizens' travel
to Cuba, and said that Washington would increase the number of immigrant
visas for Cubans it hands out.
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