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When we were covering the early days of the ethanol craze I wrote a Juice blog post that included possibly obtaining ethanol from Cuban sugar cane. I questioned why it is OK for me to travel to China and Russia and spend US dollars yet am not permitted to travel from Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville cafe in Key West, Florida to the island nation of Cuba located only 90 miles away.
Today’s Florida Sun Sentinel reports that an effort is underway in Congress to drop the travel restrictions that have been in place since the Bay of Pigs disaster.
Quoting from the Sentinel it states:
The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 4 would allow American citizens unrestricted travel to Cuba for the first time since 1963. The bill by Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., and eight co-sponsors would also lift limits on travel by Cuban exiles living in the United States.
The entire story is found at this link:
Does that mean they’ll also legalize Cuban cigar imports?
Good if they lift the travel ban.
It is about time for the government to stop this nonsense ban, and stop pandering to a few old exile Cubans in Miami.
Lift the ban. First sensible idea to originate in Congress in ages. Cold War is over. We won. Cuba is not a threat to us. Lets grow up already. Drop the trade embargo, too. We’re up to our armpits in trade with China, how is Cuba so different?
JS:
Those Havana stogies are mighty tempting.
John. We had a shot at buying Havana cigars in the Cayman Islands but had to pass due to the restrictions. Not fair.
Nothing will end communism in Cuba more quickly than more contact with the US, the lifting of the embargo, and the removal of all excuses for Cuba’s bad economic situation.
The only ones hurt by this silly embargo are the Cuban people. I can tell you from first hand knowledge that they need this embargo lifted.
I have a friend that lives in Havana and she is proud to be Cuban and she loves her country very much. Her father is one of the revolutionaries that came with Fidel from Mexico on the Granma, he fought with Che in the Sierra Maestra. As much as she loves her country and believes in principles of the Revolution, she also wants Cuba and America to open up and get on a path where we can all live in peace.
The Cuban people that live in Cuba and that I talk to know that their lives will improve and their futures will be brighter if the embargo ends.
To them it is not about Fidel winning or losing it is about getting a brighter future for all Cuban people.
Resources are scarce. Things we take for granted here, like food and electricity, are not always easy to come by for them.
Ending the embargo is the humane and decent thing to do. The Cuban people have suffered long enough.
Folks. We lost over 58,000 Americans in the Vietnamese War yet have signed a bilateral trade agreement with that Socialist nation as indicated below. It is time.
The U.S. – Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), which went into effect on December 10, 2001, is the centerpiece of U.S. efforts to open Vietnam’s market and promote reform of its trade and investment regime.