Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act (Introduced in House)
HR 874 IH
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 874
To allow travel between the United States and Cuba.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 4, 2009
Mr. DELAHUNT (for himself, Mr. FLAKE, Ms. DELAURO, Mrs. EMERSON, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MORAN of Kansas, Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland, Mr. PAUL, and Mr. FARR) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
________________________________________
A BILL
To allow travel between the United States and Cuba.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act'.
SEC. 2. TRAVEL TO CUBA.
On and after the date of the enactment of this Act, and subject to section 3--
(1) the President may not regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly, travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or legal residents, or any of the transactions incident to such travel; and
(2) any regulation in effect on such date of enactment that regulates or prohibits travel to or from Cuba by United States citizens or legal residents or transactions incident to such travel shall cease to have any force or effect.
SEC.
3. EXCEPTIONS.
Section 2 shall not apply in a case in which the United States is at war with Cuba, armed hostilities between the two countries are in progress, or there is imminent danger to the public health or the physical safety of United States travelers.
SEC.
4. APPLICABILITY.
This Act applies to actions taken by the President before the date of the enactment of this Act that are in effect on such date of enactment, and to actions taken on or after such date.
SEC. 5. INAPPLICABILITY OF OTHER PROVISIONS.
The provisions of this Act apply notwithstanding section 102(h) of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (22 U.S.C. 6032(h)) and section 910(b) of the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7210(b)).
Rep DeLauro, Rosa L. [CT-3] - 2/4/2009
Rep Edwards, Donna F. [MD-4] - 2/4/2009
Rep Emerson, Jo Ann [MO-8] - 2/4/2009
Rep Farr, Sam [CA-17] - 2/4/2009
Rep Flake, Jeff [AZ-6] - 2/4/2009
Rep McGovern, James P. [MA-3] - 2/4/2009
Rep Moran, Jerry [KS-1] - 2/4/2009
Rep Paul, Ron [TX-14] - 2/4/2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Russian Aid to Cuba
Russian aid to Cuba suddenly balloons in size
All loans and aid to Cuba, agreed on Friday between Dmitry Medvedev and Raul Castro, now total $354 million rather than the planned $20 million.
Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov reported that a state loan to Cuba to purchase Russian agricultural and construction equipment as part of an agreement endorsed together with his Cuban counterpart, amounted to $150 million, which Cuba will get over a period of nine years at 7% p.a. (the first two years will be a grace period, while during the next seven years the body of the debt will be repaid).
Another agreement is expected to allocate $20 million for 10 years at 5% p.a. (with four grace years), Shatalov said. He said agreement had been reached for Cuba to get another $100 million to lease Russian equipment. The deal will be formalized shortly.
According to a Foreign Ministry source, it was planned previously to grant Cuba only a $20 million loan, but unexpectedly, a few hours before the deal was signed,
Medvedev and Castro agreed on the allocation of a further $150 million and $100 million.
The sides also agreed on a VEB export loan worth $47 million, to be used by Ilyushin Finance Co. (IFC) to supply a Tu-204SE cargo airliner to Cuba's Aviaimport SA.
According to Andrei Lipovetsky, an IFC spokesman, this is the fourth Tu-204 being exported to Cuba. Russia has already delivered three Il-96 passenger jets there. This pre-export loan is a way of assisting Russia's aircraft industry, said Andrei Mazurov, a VEB spokesman.
Free food aid for Cuba will total another $37 million, Shatalov said. There are two tranches of 25,000 metric tons and 100,000 metric tons of grain ($7 million and $30 million, respectively). The first is ready for shipment.
The previous Russian loan allocated to Cuba under the 2006 agreement amounted to $335 million. According to Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who heads the Russian delegation on the intergovernmental commission, it has virtually all been spent.
A $20 million loan is being granted to repair and buy spare parts for military equipment supplied during the Soviet era, said a Defense Ministry source.
Vyacheslav Davidenko, a Rosoboronexport spokesman, said military technical cooperation with Cuba is small scale, but steady.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20090202/119921943.html
All loans and aid to Cuba, agreed on Friday between Dmitry Medvedev and Raul Castro, now total $354 million rather than the planned $20 million.
Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov reported that a state loan to Cuba to purchase Russian agricultural and construction equipment as part of an agreement endorsed together with his Cuban counterpart, amounted to $150 million, which Cuba will get over a period of nine years at 7% p.a. (the first two years will be a grace period, while during the next seven years the body of the debt will be repaid).
Another agreement is expected to allocate $20 million for 10 years at 5% p.a. (with four grace years), Shatalov said. He said agreement had been reached for Cuba to get another $100 million to lease Russian equipment. The deal will be formalized shortly.
According to a Foreign Ministry source, it was planned previously to grant Cuba only a $20 million loan, but unexpectedly, a few hours before the deal was signed,
Medvedev and Castro agreed on the allocation of a further $150 million and $100 million.
The sides also agreed on a VEB export loan worth $47 million, to be used by Ilyushin Finance Co. (IFC) to supply a Tu-204SE cargo airliner to Cuba's Aviaimport SA.
According to Andrei Lipovetsky, an IFC spokesman, this is the fourth Tu-204 being exported to Cuba. Russia has already delivered three Il-96 passenger jets there. This pre-export loan is a way of assisting Russia's aircraft industry, said Andrei Mazurov, a VEB spokesman.
Free food aid for Cuba will total another $37 million, Shatalov said. There are two tranches of 25,000 metric tons and 100,000 metric tons of grain ($7 million and $30 million, respectively). The first is ready for shipment.
The previous Russian loan allocated to Cuba under the 2006 agreement amounted to $335 million. According to Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who heads the Russian delegation on the intergovernmental commission, it has virtually all been spent.
A $20 million loan is being granted to repair and buy spare parts for military equipment supplied during the Soviet era, said a Defense Ministry source.
Vyacheslav Davidenko, a Rosoboronexport spokesman, said military technical cooperation with Cuba is small scale, but steady.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20090202/119921943.html
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Visitor from China, Cuba's # 2 Trading Partner
China's Hu strikes deals in Cuba
 Member of Cuba's Chinese community were on hand to greet Mr Hu |
President Hu Jintao of China is set to meet Cuban leader Raul Castro later in the day as part of his multi-stop tour of the US and Latin America.
The two nations are agreeing multiple deals on trade and loans as China bid to strengthen its links with Latin American and Caribbean nations.
Mr Hu was met at the airport by senior Cuban officials and cheering members of the local Chinese community.
Cuban TV broke into Monday's nightly news to go live to Mr Hu's arrival.
China is now Cuba's biggest trading partner after Venezuela, with bilateral trade at $2.3bn (£1.5bn) in 2007.
And across Latin America, China has seen its trade climb from $13bn in 2000 to more than $100bn in 2007.
"My visit is aimed at increasing friendship and co-operation between our two nations, and working together with our Cuban comrades to build a promising future," Mr Hu said in a statement.
Loans due
Throughout the Cold War Cuba was traditionally a much firmer ally of the Soviet Union than China, but that changed when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, leaving Cuba almost bankrupt, says the BBC's Michael Voss in Havana.
 |
Restructuring their repayment is likely to be one topic on the agenda when the two leaders meet on Tuesday, our correspondent says.
Other agreements already signed or set to be signed reportedly include Chinese purchases of nickel and sugar from Cuba, Chinese-backed energy prospecting in Cuba, and other deals in education and health.
Mr Hu arrived in Cuba from Costa Rica, where he signed co-operation and investment agreements and discussed setting up a free-trade agreement between the two countries.
He will travel on from Cuba to Peru where he will attend the Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation) summit in Lima on 21 and 22 November.
But China is not the only power interested in securing greater access to the raw materials and other resources that Latin America offers. President Hu will be followed next week by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, whose tour of the region includes a visit to Cuba.
Cuban critique
Although both Cuba and China are run by Communist parties, they have pursued very different economic models.
China has adopted market economics while Cuba still has a command system with most of the economy under state control.
On Monday, Cuban state newspaper Granma praised the Chinese model but highlighted "an unequal distribution of wealth in the country, marked difference between city and countryside and the erosion of the environment".
When Mr Hu last visited Cuba in 2004 Fidel Castro was still in charge of the country.
His younger brother, Raul Castro, officially took over the presidency in February 2008 and has introduced some reforms.
Raul Castro saw China as a potential model for Cuba to follow, says BBC regional analyst Emilio San Pedro.
China, a modern-day economic powerhouse in a world of financial uncertainty, sees Cuba with its need for investment and political support as an important ally in its long-range plans to strengthen and expand its ties with the rest of Latin America, he adds.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Lula Expects Raul at Summit in Brazil
Raul Castro to attend December summit in Brazil: Lula
HAVANA (AFP) — Cuban President Raul Castro will attend a summit in Brazil in December, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said here Friday, marking the Cuban leader's first international trip since taking over from brother Fidel Castro two years ago.
"We are pleased to learn that finally his excellency will travel to Brazil to participate in the first meeting of Latin American and Caribbean nations, without interference from any other power," Lula said during an inauguration ceremony for a Brazilian business venture in Havana.
If the visit is confirmed by Havana, it would mark the first foray outside the island nation by Castro, 77, since taking the reins of power from Fidel Castro in July 2006 when the elder leader underwent intestinal surgery.
Raul Castro officially succeeded his ailing 82-year-old brother last February when Fidel announced ahead of an election that he was stepping down, after staying in power for nearly 50 years despite a US trade embargo in full force since 1962.
Lula is friends with Fidel Castro and he had not ruled out a meeting with the Cuban leader before departing for Brasilia at 3:30pm local time (2030 GMT).
The Brazilian president arrived in Cuba on Thursday and held talks with Raul Castro, to whom he "renewed the invitation" to visit Brazil and help with the first-ever integration and development summit for Latin America and the Caribbean on December 16 and 17 near Salvador de Bahia, according to an official statement.
The text hailed the "positive developments in bilateral relations" in several fields as well as a sharing of mutual regional and multilateral interests.
Economic and commercial ties between the two countries were given a boost with Lula's first visit this year to Cuba, in January, and when a senior official visited in May to firm up 10 business agreements.
According to official Cuban figures, bilateral trade rose to 450 million dollars in 2007, making Brazil Cuba's second largest trading partner in South America after Venezuela.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gyoZfsL2MRzLNwamVQC187wbe38QFriday, October 31, 2008
Ibero American Summit Urges End of Embargo
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) -- Latin American leaders are urging the United States to repeal its 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba.
The leaders say the "unilateral" embargo is unacceptable and harms the Cuban people.
The leaders made the statement on Friday, the final day of the IberoAmerican Summit in El Salvador.
The move came after the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday asked the U.S. for the 17th year in a row to lift the embargo.
The U.S. has no diplomatic relations with Cuba and lists the country as a state sponsor of terror.
The embargo, imposed in 1962, has been tightened during President Bush's two terms.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
LA Times Blasts the Embargo
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-cuba29-2008oct29,0,719882.story
October 29, 2008
Among New York's rites of autumn -- the marathon, the rainbow of leaves in Central Park, the sudden profusion of wool overcoats -- a new one has emerged at the United Nations. In each of the last 16 years, the General Assembly has voted to condemn the United States for its embargo of Cuba. This year's ceremonial vote takes place today, and if it's anything like last year’s, it will be overwhelming. Only Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau stood with the U.S. in the 184-4 tally last October.
Washington doesn't and shouldn't design its laws around U.N. opinion, but it's instructive to learnwhat even this country's closest allies think of the Cuban embargo. Colombia, one of only a handful of Latin American countries whose government remains firmly pro-U.S., stated in a U.N. report on the issue that it "thinks this kind of action should stop and that member states should move ahead with building relations of friendship." In the same report, the European Union said that it and its member nations "have been clearly expressing their opposition to the extraterritorial extension of the United States embargo."
More astonishing than our willingness to raise the ire of nearly the entire world with our embargo is that it has survived this long in the face of overwhelming evidence of its failure. For 50 years, this country has been trying to produce regime change on the island by strangling it economically. Last we checked, a Castro was still in power, and even the economic devastation wrought by the two worst hurricanes in Cuba's history weren't spurring mass popular uprisings. U.S. sanctions worsen poverty and its attendant ills but only strengthen the Castro regime, which can blame all of the country's problems on Washington rather than addressing their true cause -- Havana's misguided economic policies.
The presidential election offers a rare opportunity for change. John McCain favors business as usual with Cuba, but Barack Obama believes that Cuban Americans should have unrestricted rights to travel to the island and send remittances. It is absurdly contradictory to allow Americans to travel freely to Iran and Venezuela, which are genuine security and economic threats, but not to Cuba, which poses no threat at all. U.S. ideals would be more influential if Cubans were more frequently exposed to them by American visitors; our interference with remittances, meanwhile, hurts only the poor.
Cuba is an anti-democratic country with little respect for human rights, and its leaders must be held to account. But targeted sanctions that punish the regime without punishing the people would be far more effective than the blunt instrument of an embargo. Obama's proposals don't go far enough, but they're a good start.
From the Los Angeles Times
Editorial
The useless Cuba embargo
America's economic sanctions on Cuba, now 50 years old, are a failure.
October 29, 2008
Among New York's rites of autumn -- the marathon, the rainbow of leaves in Central Park, the sudden profusion of wool overcoats -- a new one has emerged at the United Nations. In each of the last 16 years, the General Assembly has voted to condemn the United States for its embargo of Cuba. This year's ceremonial vote takes place today, and if it's anything like last year’s, it will be overwhelming. Only Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau stood with the U.S. in the 184-4 tally last October.
Washington doesn't and shouldn't design its laws around U.N. opinion, but it's instructive to learnwhat even this country's closest allies think of the Cuban embargo. Colombia, one of only a handful of Latin American countries whose government remains firmly pro-U.S., stated in a U.N. report on the issue that it "thinks this kind of action should stop and that member states should move ahead with building relations of friendship." In the same report, the European Union said that it and its member nations "have been clearly expressing their opposition to the extraterritorial extension of the United States embargo."
More astonishing than our willingness to raise the ire of nearly the entire world with our embargo is that it has survived this long in the face of overwhelming evidence of its failure. For 50 years, this country has been trying to produce regime change on the island by strangling it economically. Last we checked, a Castro was still in power, and even the economic devastation wrought by the two worst hurricanes in Cuba's history weren't spurring mass popular uprisings. U.S. sanctions worsen poverty and its attendant ills but only strengthen the Castro regime, which can blame all of the country's problems on Washington rather than addressing their true cause -- Havana's misguided economic policies.
The presidential election offers a rare opportunity for change. John McCain favors business as usual with Cuba, but Barack Obama believes that Cuban Americans should have unrestricted rights to travel to the island and send remittances. It is absurdly contradictory to allow Americans to travel freely to Iran and Venezuela, which are genuine security and economic threats, but not to Cuba, which poses no threat at all. U.S. ideals would be more influential if Cubans were more frequently exposed to them by American visitors; our interference with remittances, meanwhile, hurts only the poor.
Cuba is an anti-democratic country with little respect for human rights, and its leaders must be held to account. But targeted sanctions that punish the regime without punishing the people would be far more effective than the blunt instrument of an embargo. Obama's proposals don't go far enough, but they're a good start.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Europe - Cuba Restore Full Relations
EU formally renews ties with Cuba
| By Michael Voss BBC News, Havana |
 Mr Michel said the Cuban government had agreed to resume political dialogue |
The EU and Cuba have formally restored ties, five years after the EU imposed diplomatic sanctions on the island following mass arrests of dissidents.
European Commissioner Louis Michel said the accord he signed with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque was "a turning point for EU-Cuban relations".
Mr Perez Roque welcomed its respect for the island's political independence.
It will now receive 2m euros ($2.6m) of emergency hurricane recovery aid, with 30m euros ($38.9m) available next year.
An EU delegation will return to Cuba in November to determine the needs and priorities for the financing to be made available in 2009.
Political dialogue
The two recent hurricanes which swept through Cuba in late August and early September - Ike and Gustav - caused billions of dollars worth of damage.
Yet Cuba's communist authorities refused all offers of aid not just from the US but the EU as well - a sign of just how strained relations had become.
 Two recent hurricanes that hit Cuba caused billions of dollars of damage |
Now following a signing ceremony in Havana, Cuba and the EU have agreed to resume co-operation.
A joint declaration, signed by Cuba's foreign minister and the European commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, calls for respect for Cuba's political independence and non-intervention in its internal affairs.
However, according to Mr Michel, the Cuban government has agreed to resume political dialogue in which "no subjects will be taboo".
This should open the way for future talks on issues such as democracy, human rights and political prisoners.
Mr Michel also announced an aid package of up to 30m euros for hurricane reconstruction.
How to deal with Cuba is one area where Europe and the United States have substantial differences.
Since Raul Castro took over the presidency, following his brother Fidel's retirement due to ill health, EU policy has been to try to develop a dialogue with Cuba in the hope of influencing change.
But the Cubans demanded that the EU formally lift the diplomatic sanctions which it imposed in 2003, following the mass arrest of dissidents. The sanctions were suspended in 2005, but only eliminated altogether at the EU summit in June.
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