Cuba travel gets new look, but ban stays
By A. Pawlowski, CNN
August 25, 2010 7:46 a.m. EDT

CNN) -- Word that the U.S. government could soon loosen travel restrictions to Cuba may have some American travelers imagining New Year's in Havana or a spring break on the island's famed Varadero Beach.

Not so fast.

The proposed changes would essentially reinstate measures that were in place under the Clinton administration -- a far cry from an end to the travel ban, which would require an act of Congress.

Talk of the new rules also comes as Cuba has agreed to free 52 political prisoners by mid-November, but it's not necessarily a signal that a complete lifting of U.S. travel restrictions is near.

"It certainly could indicate that the climate is more appropriate than it was before the prisoner release started," said Shasta Darlington, a CNN international correspondent based in Havana.

"[But] one is an executive decision and the other is a legislative decision. I don't think you can tie them together too closely."

'Frisson of the forbidden'

For now, Washington is focusing on "people-to-people" exchanges under which academics, corporations, humanitarian groups and athletic teams could travel to Cuba as a way to promote cultural exchanges and programs with universities.

In a sign of how politically sensitive the issue is, the move is already drawing criticism from some lawmakers.
Cuban-American politicians against loosening travel, aid rules

So while European and Canadian visitors continue to flock to Cuba for its tropical climate, Spanish colonial architecture and exotic flair, the island officially remains off-limits to U.S. tourists.

Not that that's ever stopped some Americans from going anyway, bypassing the restrictions by hopping on a flight to Havana from Canada, Mexico and other destinations.

"It's partly the frisson of the forbidden; the fact that it is off limits and there's some kind of excitement quality for a lot of tourists," said Christopher Baker, a journalist who has visited Cuba dozens of times and is the author of the "Moon Cuba" guidebook.

"At the same time, I run into quite a number of Americans who are kind of thumbing their nose at what they consider inappropriate, unconstitutional restrictions."

The curiosity factor

Washington severed diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961 and has had an economic embargo in place since 1962. Americans seeking to travel to the island nation must obtain permission to do so and must fit into special categories, like journalists or people visiting a close relative.

Last year, more than 67,000 U.S. citizens obtained approval from the U.S. government to enter Cuba by air, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Travel and Tourism Industries.

Supporters of the ban say it needs to continue to put the pressure on the Castro regime, but an April 2009 CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found that 64 percent of Americans thought the U.S. government should allow citizens to travel to Cuba.

Travel agents report getting a fair amount of interest from clients about the island, though the only help they can offer is to refer them to operators outside the United States. Some travel agents say U.S. tourists are eager to see Cuba as it is now, before any major loosening of restrictions.

"Americans aren't going for the beach vacation. Americans are going to Cuba out of curiosity," said Terry McCabe, national director of leisure for Altour in Paramus, New Jersey.

"Once you leave the resort areas along the beach, Cuba is a time capsule. I think within 18 to 24 months after they open it up for [U.S.] tourism, some of that will start to change."

It's estimated that up to 500,000 additional U.S. tourists could pour into Cuba the first year after the lifting of the travel ban, according to a study prepared for the Cuba Policy Foundation. That number would almost triple five years after the end of the restrictions.

"We're 90 miles off the coast of Florida, and there are very few Americans here. That would clearly change quickly," said Darlington, the CNN correspondent.

Cuba's splashy marketing

But even without a significant number of U.S. travelers, tourism is a vital industry for Cuba.

The country welcomed more than 2.4 million visitors in 2009, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization. About 38 percent were from Canada, 34 percent were from Europe and 28 percent were from other regions of the world.
Havana devotes "significant resources" to building new tourist facilities and renovating historic structures for use in tourism, according to the U.S. Department of State.

It also markets itself aggressively to visitors. The Cuba Tourist Board in Canada, for example, offers a splashy web page tempting tourists with Cuba's "breathtaking beaches and scenery; fascinating history; rich culture; ecological wonders and more."

That's something American travelers might see if some lawmakers have their way.

Earlier this year, the House Agriculture Committee approved a bill that would end the travel ban on Americans to Cuba. The legislation appears to be stalled in the House of Representatives, but it received the thumbs up from the American Society of Travel Agents, which says Americans should be allowed to globetrot without restrictions.
Time: Will the White House fight to end the Cuba travel ban?

"Were the American people allowed to travel to Havana, as they currently are allowed to travel to Pyongyang, Tehran, Khartoum and other cities whose nations' leaders are publicly opposed to American interests, they could serve as ambassadors of freedom and American values to the Cuban people," said Colin Tooze, the group's vice president of government affairs.

For now, that will have to wait.

Hollywood stars visit Havana amid U.S.-Cuba thaw
By Rosa Tania Valdes
Fri Jul 31, 1:35 AM

HAVANA (Reuters) - Hollywood came to Havana on Thursday as Cuban writers and artists gave an award to Benicio del Toro, star of the 2008 movie "Che," in a ceremony attended by fellow actors Bill Murray, Robert Duvall and James Caan.

Murray stole the show when he improvised a version of the song "As Time Goes By," then jokingly passed around a hat, asking for money.

Their presence lent a bit of Hollywood glitz to warming U.S.-Cuba relations, and may have been the precursor for the making of a film in Cuba.

A spokesman for the group said del Toro was in town for the award, but that Murray, Duvall and Caan were working on a "research project.

When asked if he and his pals might make a movie on the communist-led island, del Toro told reporters: "That depends on the governments, on the American government."

Because of the long-standing U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, Americans have been forbidden, with some exceptions, from visiting the island or doing most business there.

Hollywood stars such as Robert Redford, Arnold Schwarzenegger and director Steven Spielberg have come to Cuba in the past but cultural exchanges slowed due to restrictions imposed by former U.S. President George W. Bush.

The group's spokesman said they were traveling under a license granted by the U.S. Treasury Department.

U.S. President Barack Obama offered earlier this year to "recast" relations with Cuba, which have been sour since the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.

Obama has lifted travel restrictions for Cuban Americans and restarted immigration talks with Cuba that were suspended under Bush.

Last week, the United States said a Bush-era news ticker on the U.S. Interests Section building in Havana, which the Cuban government viewed as an affront, had been turned off.

Puerto Rican-born del Toro won acclaim here last year for his portrayal of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, an Argentine who fought alongside Castro in the Cuban revolution, in the title role of the two-part biopic "Che," directed by American Steven Soderbergh.

The International Tomas Gutierrez Alea Prize, named for the late Cuban director who made the 1994 film "Strawberry and Chocolate," "makes me feel small and proud at the same time," del Toro said. "It's an honor to win this prize."

The other stars did not speak to reporters.

New York Philharmonic May Perform in Cuba
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: July 9, 2009

The New York Philharmonic, hoping to notch another exotic destination in its touring history, said on Thursday it had been invited to perform in Cuba and was seriously considering such a visit.


The orchestra's president, Zarin Mehta, and other of its officials planned to travel to Havana on Friday to investigate concert halls, hotels and other logistical matters. The Philharmonic has received licenses to travel there, in light of the United States embargo.

The trip would be yet another recent dip into cold-war waters for the Philharmonic. It would take place just a few days after the orchestra returns from an Asian tour in October that will include Vietnam. Last year it traveled to isolated, totalitarian North Korea. The Philharmonic said that it had never been to Vietnam or Cuba, and that the North Korea visit was a first for any major orchestra.

A tour of Cuba would further etch the image of the Philharmonic as America's musical ambassador, a profile that orchestra officials are eager to promote. The North Korea trip was a publicity boon, winning the ensemble wide attention outside of classical music circles - an increasing rarity for classical music institutions in recent decades.
High-profile touring "defines the New York Philharmonic, but I think it defines our country," Mr. Mehta said.
"It's important that we fly the flag," he added.

If the trip comes off, it would probably last four days, starting on Oct. 30 - five days after the orchestra returns from Asia, Mr. Mehta said. It would most likely give two concerts. The Philharmonic's incoming music director, Alan Gilbert, would conduct during both tours.

The Philharmonic's decision to move forward with the trip comes after the Obama administration has eased some sanctions against Cuba, including limits on visits by Cuban-Americans to relatives and the sending of gifts and money.
Mr. Gilbert called a Cuban visit "entirely appropriate" and said, "It's probably not a coincidence that it's happening at this time."

Orchestra officials also took pains to say the trip had strong United States government approval. The idea was run past the office of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Mehta said. "They said, 'Absolutely, it's a wonderful project, and you should pursue it,' " Mr. Mehta said.

Representatives Charles B. Rangel and Steve Israel, along with Senator Charles E. Schumer, all Democrats of New York, also approved, he said. And leading board members of the Philharmonic and the orchestra's tour committee are in favor of the trip, Mr. Mehta said.

The Cuban invitation came in the wake of the North Korea trip. Several Philharmonic officials had casual conversations with an ABC News official who has contacts with Cuban diplomats in Washington, Eric Latzky, the orchestra's spokesman, said. The ABC official put the two sides together, unofficial contacts ensued, and a formal invitation came last week, Mr. Latzky said.

The orchestra took some criticism for agreeing to visit such a closed and repressive country as North Korea. Orchestra officials said that among the conditions for agreeing to go to Pyongyang was a guarantee from the North Korean government that the concert be broadcast to North Koreans and that journalists be allowed in.
Mr. Mehta said he did not know what Cuba's broadcast plans might be, and that he planned to ask the Cubans to guarantee access to American journalists.

Yet orchestra officials also played down any comparison to the North Korea trip. Mr. Gilbert said he would not be surprised by a "healthy discussion" over a Cuban version. "My sense is that the prevailing feeling will be positive," he said. "I think that music really does speak for itself." He called the Cuba trip a nonpolitical "cultural exchange."
"It's actually as straightforward as what it seems," Mr. Gilbert said. "We're playing music for appreciative audiences."

OAS votes to readmit Cuba after 47 years
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - The Organization of American States voted by acclamation on Wednesday to revoke the 1962 measure suspending communist Cuba, overturning a landmark of the Cold War in the hemisphere.

"The Cold War has ended this day in San Pedro Sula," said Honduran President Manuel Zelaya immediately following the announcement. "We begin a new era of fraternity and tolerance."

The action doesn't mean Cuba will return to the 34-member body that helps coordinate policies and mediates disputes throughout the Americas.

Cuban officials have repeatedly insisted they have no interest in returning to an organization they consider a tool of the United States.

And if Cuba changes its mind, the agreement calls for "a process of dialogue" in line with OAS "practices, proposals and principles" - a veiled allusion to agreements on human rights and democracy.

"This is a moment of rejoicing for all of Latin America," Ecuador's Foreign Minister Fander Falconi told reporters after the session.

The decision was taken by consensus, meaning the United States accepted it, though Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had lobbied personally for requiring Cuba to make democratic reforms and improve respect for human rights.
"The historic action taken today eliminates a distraction from the past and allows us to focus on the realities of today," State Department Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood said in Washington.

He said it would let officials "continue with the president's efforts to support the desire of the Cuban people to freely determine Cuba's future consistent with our core principles and those of the Americas."

Wood also portrayed the resolution's reference to OAS principles as a victory for U.S. diplomacy, noting that most countries had favored automatically readmitting Cuba.

"The United States worked tirelessly," he said, to ensure "that the return of Cuba to participation in the OAS will be done consistent with the principles and purposes of the democracy and human rights."

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Official: US-Cuba talks on immigration to resume
WASHINGTON - Cuba has agreed to resume talks with the Obama administration on legal immigration of Cubans to the United States and direct mail service between the two countries, a State Department official said Sunday.

The communist government notified the U.S. on Saturday that it had accepted an administration overture made May 22 to restart the immigration talks, suspended by President George W. Bush after the last meeting in 2003. Cuba also expressed a willingness to cooperate with the U.S. on fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, and on hurricane disaster preparedness.

The official, who spoke to reporters just before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton left on a trip to El Salvador and Honduras, said the Cuban response was a positive development and "clear signal" that the administration and the Havana government are willing to engage.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the time and place for the resumed talks have not been determined.
The State Department said earlier this month it had proposed restarting the discussions to "reaffirm both sides' commitment to safe, legal and orderly migration, to review trends in illegal Cuban migration to the United States and to improve operational relations with Cuba on migration issues."

In April, President Barack Obama rescinded restrictions on travel to Cuba by Americans with family there and on the amount of money they can send to their relatives on the island.

The latest development comes ahead of Clinton's participation at a meeting Tuesday in Honduras where Cuba's possible readmission to the Organization of American States is expected to be discussed.

U.S. officials say they are ready to support lifting the resolution that suspended Cuba from the 34-country group. But they insist on linking the island's readmission to democratic reforms under a charter the organization adopted in 2001.
Before the U.S.-Cuban talks were suspended in 2003, the twice-yearly meetings in alternating countries had been the highest level contacts between the two countries, which have no diplomatic relations. Cuban officials were angered when the Bush administration decided to scuttle the talks on grounds they were not crucial for monitoring agreements aimed at preventing a mass exodus from the island.

The talks were created so the countries could track adherence to 1994 and 1995 accords designed to promote legal, orderly migration between the two countries. The aim was to avoid a repeat of the summer of 1994, when tens of thousands of Cubans took to the sea in flimsy boats.

On U.S.-Cuban mail, previously material between the countries had to go through third countries. The post office advises people to check with the Treasury Department for rules governing what can be sent to Cuba.

Obama heads to Americas summit with Cuba focus
MEXICO CITY - After backing Mexico's ongoing battle against drug cartels, President Barack Obama is heading to a Western Hemisphere summit with a sudden spotlight on Cuba. The president is to fly Friday to the island of Trinidad for the 34-nation Summit of the Americas, a gathering to which Cuba, as the region's only non-democracy, is not invited. Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, a staunch ally of Cuba's communist government, vowed to torpedo a final summit communique in protest of the country's exclusion.

But Obama's move this week to ease travel and some other restrictions for Cuban-Americans brought an unprecedented reply from Havana. Raul Castro, who took over from his ailing brother, Fidel, a year ago, offered to talk to the Obama administration about all outstanding grievances.

Speaking from a meeting Chavez hosted in Venezuela, Raul Castro declared: "We have sent word to the U.S. government in private and in public that we are willing to discuss everything - human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners, everything."

Previously, Cubans had insisted their domestic politics were their own business, and administration officials were trying to determine what to make of the development.

On Tuesday, Obama lifted limits on visits by Americans with relatives in Cuba, eased restrictions on family gifts and cash payments, and moved to allow U.S. telecom companies to expand service to the island.

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New York's Havana Film Festival to Open Next Week
HAVANA, Cuba, April 11 (can) The now regular New York Havana Film Festival, to be held from April 16 to 23, promotes movies made in and about Cuba, Latin America and Latinos living in the US.

Some 40 new and classic movies will be exhibited in three main venues in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx.

Among the guests participating at the festival are directors Luis Ospina, Lucia Murat, Lisandro Duque, Jacobo Morales, Rafael Lara, Lilian Rosado, Juanma Fernandez, Fernando Valenzuela, Freddy Vargas, Tane Martinez and Phil Tucket; screenwriters Pablo Solarz and Rodolfo Quebleen; and actors Cris Bierenbac, Jorge Perugorria, Mirtha Ibarra and Enrique Molina.

Mirtha Ibarra will present her recent documentary entitled "Titon: de La Habana a Guantanamera," a review of the life and work of Tomas Gutierrez Alea, considered the best Cuban filmmaker of all times.

The emblematic festival will feature the works of three Latin American maestros: Cubans Santiago Alvarez and Humberto Solas, and Colombian Luis Ospina.

The Cuban comedy "El cuerno de la abundancia" by Juan Carlos Tabio will open the festival in Manhattan, and "Un novio para mi mujer," by Argentine filmmaker Juan Taratuto, will close it.

Tabio's comedy won two awards at last year's Havana New Latin American Cinema Festival: for best screenplay and the Third Coral award.

Obama Will Use Spring Summit to Bring Cuba in From The Cold
US companies are queuing up as the president moves to ease restrictions on travel and trade, raising hopes of warmer relations and an end to the embargo. President Barack Obama is poised to offer an olive branch to Cuba in an effort to repair the US's tattered reputation in Latin America. The White House has moved to ease some travel and trade restrictions as a cautious first step towards better ties with Havana, raising hopes of an eventual lifting of the four-decade-old economic embargo. Several Bush-era controls are expected to be relaxed in the run-up to next month's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago to gild the president's regional debut and signal a new era of "Yankee" cooperation. The administration has moved to ease draconian travel controls and lift limits on cash remittances that Cuban-Americans can send to the island, a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of families."The effect on ordinary Cubans will be fairly significant. It will improve things and be very welcome," said a western diplomat in Havana. The changes would reverse hardline Bush policies but not fundamentally alter relations between the superpower and the island, he added. "It just takes us back to the 1990s." The provisions are contained in a $410bn (£290bn) spending bill due to be voted on this week. The legislation would allow Americans with immediate family in Cuba to visit annually, instead of once every three years, and broaden the definition of immediate family. It would also drop a requirement that Havana pay cash in advance for US food imports."There is a strong likelihood that Obama will announce policy changes prior to the summit," said Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programmes at the Inter-American Dialogue and author of The Cuba Wars. "Loosening travel restrictions would be the easy thing to do and defuse tensions at the summit." Latin America, once considered Washington's "backyard", has become newly assertive and ended the Castro government's pariah status. The presidents of Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Guatemala have recently visited Havana to deepen economic and political ties. Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is expected to tell Obama on a White House visit this week that the region views the US embargo as anachronistic and vindictive. Easing it would help mend Washington's strained relations with the "pink tide" of leftist governments. Obama's proposed Cuba measures would only partly thaw a policy frozen since John F Kennedy tried to isolate the communist state across the Florida Straits. "It would signal new pragmatism, but you would still have the embargo, which is the centrepiece of US policy," said Erikson.
Wayne Smith at the Centre for International Policy, Washington DC, said: "I think that the Obama administration will go ahead and lift restrictions on travel of Cuban Americans and remittance to their families. He may also lift restrictions on academic travel."There are some things that could be done very easily - for example it's about time we took Cuba off the terrorist list. It's the beginning of the end of the policies we have had towards Cuba for 50 years. It's achieved nothing, it's an embarrassment." Wayne Smith, a former head of the US Interest Section in Havana, famously said Cuba had the same effect on American administrations as the full moon had on werewolves. Cuban exiles in Florida, a crucial voting bloc in a swing state, sustained a hardline US policy towards Havana even as the cold war ended and the US traded with other undemocratic nations with much worse human rights records. To Washington's chagrin, the economic stranglehold did not topple Fidel Castro. When Soviet Union subsidies evaporated, the "maximum leader" implemented savage austerity, opened the island to tourism and found a new sponsor in Venezuela's petrol-rich president, Hugo Chavez. When Fidel fell ill in 2006, power transferred seamlessly to his brother Raul. He cemented his authority last week with a cabinet reshuffle that replaced "Fidelistas" with "Raulistas" from the military. Recognising Castro continuity, and aghast at European and Asian competitors getting a free hand, US corporate interests are impatient to do business with Cuba. Oil companies want to drill offshore, farmers to export more rice, vegetables and meat, construction firms to build infrastructure projects. Young Cuban exiles in Florida, less radical than their parents, have advocated ending the policy of isolation. As a senator, Obama opposed the embargo, but as a presidential candidate he supported it - and simultaneously promised engagement with Havana. A handful of hardline anti-Castro Republican and Democrat members of Congress have threatened to derail the $410bn spending bill unless the Cuba provisions are removed, but most analysts think the legislation will survive. Compared to intractable challenges in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East, the opportunity for quick progress on Cuba has been called the "low-hanging fruit" of US foreign policy.
That Obama has moved so cautiously has frustrated many reformers. But after decades of freeze, even a slight thaw is welcome, and there is speculation that more will follow.

Buena Vista Social Club Bassist Dies at 76
Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez, the bassist for the internationally-renowned Buena Vista Social Club, died Monday in a Havana hospital due to complications from prostate surgery. He was 76. Lopez grew up in Havana among a family 30 bass players. His father, Orestes, played piano, cello and bass, and often brought Orlando to sessions. Lopez originally wanted to play the violin but his grandfather made sure he switched to bass as part of the family tradition, which included his uncle, Israel "Cachao" Lopez, a Grammy-winning bassist considered to be the pioneer of mambo. Over the years, Lopez played in mambo groups, the Cuban national Symphony and jazz bands, but he's most well known for his work with the Social Club, an ensemble of elderly Cuban musicians brought together by Ry Cooder, and the documentary that followed them. His steady, powerful bass lines led him to be called the "heartbeat" of the group, and he achieved critical success with his only solo album, 2001's 'Cachaito.' He is the seventh group member to pass away in this decade.

The Sound of Change: Can Music Save Cuba?
If this were a music video, it would start in this living room in Havana, with a tight shot of the skinny kid in the white tank top at the keyboard. He counts it off from four, and with a sort of animal ease, his fingers fly, and a montuno rhythm swells through the dented amp, surging until the drummer can't help joining in with the five-beat clave that is the backbone of all music here. And then the camera swings to the timbalero with a pink star dyed into his fade, cracking into the rhythm, and here comes the bass player--whose father and grandfather were famous singers with Orquesta Aragon--now he's thumping the ones and threes. This thing is really moving now; the horns punch in, and the camera pans across the room to the three singers by the door, with Oscar in the middle, improvising over a chorus in that high, almost nasal cant of the salsero. The camera would follow the cables from the cramped room--13 Cuban musicians jammed in a room that wouldn't fit five Americans!--out to the porch, where the roadies and techs are busy tweaking something on the big mixer because all the gear is a mix of decent parts and horrible parts, quarter-inch cables held together with used tape, Roland keyboards wobbling on rusted stands.

All-Stars bring Cuban sound to Rose Center
The musicians may live in Sweden, Germany and Mexico now, but the sound is still passionately Cuban. "We Cubans cannot be removed from our culture and music, no matter where we live," said Juan de Marcos, the leader of the Afro-Cuban All-Stars.

U.S. farm sales to Cuba rise 61 pct, group says
HAVANA -- Cuba spent a record $710 million on U.S. farm imports last year, a 61 percent increase over 2007, as hurricanes destroyed much of the country's farms, a leading trade research group said Wednesday. Spending on imports jumped with rising food prices during the first part of the year, said the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. It climbed increased more after three hurricanes hit the island, crippling food production in many parts of the countryside.

Shift of opinion may soften U.S.'s Cuba policy
The president-elect said in his campaign that he would consider talks with Havana and lift restrictions on Cuban Americans' ability to travel and send money to the island. Washington's hawkish policy toward Cuba, a durable legacy of the Cold War, is under pressure from pronounced shifts in U.S. public opinion and in Congress, amplified by the election of Barack Obama. Obama's presidency raises the prospect of significant policy changes because of his campaign promises to consider talks with Havana and to lift restrictions on the ability of Cuban Americans to travel and send money to the island. In addition, there are new signs that many Cuban Americans, whose anti-Castro fervor has sustained a tough approach, no longer favor the economic embargo that has been the policy's main ingredient. Congress is expected to press for reform next year as more Democrats enter and some hard-line Republicans retire.