Vol. 72/No. 26      June 30, 2008

The bill easily passed the Florida Senate and House. It would require Florida-based travel companies that handle trips to Cuba or any other country Washington designates as “terrorist”—Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Sudan—to pay a $2,500 registration fee and post a bond of up to $300,000.

Radio talk show host Francisco Aruca told Progreso Weekly that the bill “establishes that any violation of any federal or state law or regulation that attempts to limit trade relations and ‘transactions’ with Cuba will be punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 per violation, no matter how insignificant the violation, and could become a crime defined as third-degree felony.”

Ignacio Millan, a retired heavy-equipment mechanic and member of the International Association of Machinists, came on one of three buses to the protest. While Millan was born in Mexico, his wife Georgina Mendivil is from Cuba. “We have a lot of family in Cuba,” said Millan. “We have a moral responsibility for our families. It is a right no one can eliminate.”

In 2004 the U.S. government tightened restrictions on trips by Cuban-Americans to the island, limiting visits to once every three years and only to visit immediate family members. Washington also limited remittances to Cuba to $300 per quarter. Prior to these restrictions, Cuban-Americans were permitted to visit close relatives once a year.

“We are in solidarity with this activity,” Tony Llanso, president of the Cuban-American group Alianza Martiana, told the Militant. “The people in Alianza Martiana are not in the travel to Cuba business. We are the customers. If these agencies and charters are obligated to close their operations or become more expensive for the customers, it is us who will have to pay.”

A car caravan to demand the right to travel to Cuba will take place in Miami June 28.  
 
 
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