March 09, 2004
Bush continues election year tightening of Cuba travel restrictions
Our strong, firm, but loving Big Brother Bush says it’s too dangerous for us to cross the street. We might be exposed to ideas or art or culture or something equally scarey and dangerous:
American neurologists and medical ethicists, including one from the University of South Florida, cannot attend a conference in Cuba this week because the U.S. government withdrew permission for the trip.Posted by Norwood at March 9, 2004 07:39 AMAbout 60 people from U.S. universities were scheduled to be in Havana today for a four- day International Symposium on Coma and Death. The conference has been held three times in Cuba's capital, with U.S. citizens attending.
About 10 days ago, the Treasury Department told the New Jersey travel company responsible for the U.S. arrangements that permission for the trip had been canceled. The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control oversees U.S. travel to Cuba.
``We got rebuffed in every way, and 58 people had to cancel their reservations,'' said Bob Guild, program manager for Marzul Charters Inc. of Weehawken, N.J.
Guild said the Treasury Department previously told him that the trip could be made under a general license for professional travel to Cuba.
About 10 days ago, he said, he was told that the conference did not qualify because it was being sponsored by a Cuban organization, the Institute of Neurology in Havana.
Individual participants could have applied for permission, but the Treasury Department told him that would not be granted either, Guild said.
