Vol. 20, No. 10 October 2012 In the News OFAC lets up a bit on P2P Cuba licenses, Tourists keep coming but U.S. regulations still frustrate TSPs Canadian arrivals Up, thoUgh eUrozone ills BY LARRY LUXNER Cubans living abroad — up from 375,431 in 2010 dissUade Spaniards, Italians ..........Page 2 he 50-year-old U.S. travel ban against and 296,064 in 2009. Most of them are believed Cuba, along with Europe’s crippling eco- to be Cuban-Americans. Tnomic crisis — which has denied thou- Add to that the thousands of Americans not of Viera Linares speaks sands of would-be vacationers the chance to Cuban origin who visited the island, and it’s Retired CUban diplomat tells N.Y. aUdience visit the island — has nevertheless failed to put entirely possible — despite all the restrictions corrUpt foreign investors offered local offi- a dent in Cuba’s tourism industry. imposed by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control — that U.S. citizens are now the most cials kickbacks, fake contracts .....Page 4 In fact, thanks to a steady stream of freezing common foreigners in Cuba after Canadians. Canadians flocking south in search of sun, sand “The only solution is to get OFAC out of it and salsa, the numbers are up rather than down entirely,” said anti-embargo activist John Mc- October 1962 in maps (see related story, page 2). Graphics explain in detail how the CUban Auliff, executive director of the New York-based At the same time, more Cuban-Americans are Fund for Reconciliation and Development. Missile Crisis Unfolded ..................Page 6 visiting the island of their birth than ever “There’s a general travel license for Cuban- before, thanks to U.S. regulations that encour- Americans. Nobody asks if they ever see their age such trips even while making them difficult family when they’re in Cuba. Nobody asks to Bolaños steps down for Americans who lack family ties to Cuba. José Cabañas replaces Jorge Bolaños as prove that they actually have a cousin in Cuba,” Worldwide, the top sources of tourism to he complained. “It’s a trust situation — a calcu- chief of CUban mission in D.C. .....Page 7 Cuba, said the Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas lation that if 5% are cheating, the other 95% are (ONE), are Canada, Great Britain, Italy, France, to our benefit. Any university can send students, Provinces: Ciego de Avila Argentina, Germany, Russia, Spain and Mexico. and any religious organization can send people Yet according to the latest government statistics without any bureaucracy.” ObscUre sUgar-prodUcing province hopes from Havana, the island was visited by 397,886 See OFAC, page 2 toUrism will save economy ............Page 8 What’s with the cable? Cuba, eager for overseas remittances, Videoconference renews talk aboUt CUba- VenezUela-CUba fiberoptic link ...Page 11 drops draconian exit visa requirement BY LARRY LUXNER and repressive travel policy that has aptly been Sandy’s legacy compared to a paper version of the Berlin Wall,” HUrricane leaves 65 dead, inclUding 11 in inally, after two years of speculation and pronouncements that came to nothing, the said the Los Angeles Times. “The announcement CUba, before heading north .......Page 11 Fgovernment of President Raúl Castro has that [Cuba] plans to end this inhumane system was long overdue and more than welcome.” enacted a new migration law in hopes of receiv- Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of state Hope for UBPCs ing more remittance money from abroad. for Western Hemisphere affairs, was enthusias- New decree breathes life into troUbled The new law replaces a series of abusive and tic yet chose her words carefully when address- cooperative movement ................Page 12 useless migration laws from 1961, 1976 and ing the subject at an Oct. 18 press briefing. 1978, along with other regulations and restric- “We don’t yet know how those changes that tions involving letters of invitation, confiscation were announced are going to be implemented,” Cuba’s lakes of property and the like. she said. “It is, of course, of great interest to … Island’s freshwater lakes offer hUge poten- “These measures are truly substantial and policymakers at the State Department and else- tial for U.S. boating indUstry ......Page 13 profound,” said Col. Lamberto Fraga, Cuba’s where throughout the U.S. government what No. 2 immigration official, in a Havana press the change means, how it will be implemented, conference following the announcement. “What and what we may need to do to respond to that.” CubaNews (ISSN 1073-7715) is pUblished monthly by CUBANEWS LLC. © 2012. All rights reserved. we are doing is not just cosmetic.” Jacobson, profiled by CubaNews in September, AnnUal sUbscription: $398. Nonprofit organizations: Reaction from the United States was swift and said it’s too early to determine if the U.S. Inte- $198. Printed edition is $100 extra. For editorial in- generally favorable, though cautious. rests Section in Havana will need additional per- qUires, please call (305) 393-8760, fax yoUr reqUest “For 50 years, Cubans have been prevented sonnel to handle increases in visa applications. to (305) 670-2229 or email [email protected]. from leaving their country by an anachronistic See Migration, page 14 2 CubaNews v October 2012 TOURISM OFAC — FROM PAGE 1 And while Washington does everything it can to discourage American tourists from Arrivals up despite eurozone troubles lolling on Cuban beaches, “people-to-people” exchanges are something different. BY ARMANDO H. PORTELA believed to be Cuban-Americans, as well as Shortly after President Barack Obama took xactly 2,021,649 foreigners landed on U.S. citizens not of Cuban origin who are office, he reversed policies imposed by the Cuban soil during the first eight months either traveling illegally to the island — or BUsh administration which had restricted Eof 2012 — a 5.2% rise over the same peri- legally as participants in people-to-people ex- Cuban-Americans to visiting their families in od in 2011 — despite the savage European changes, humanitarian missions and the like. Cuba to just once every three years. financial crisis which has made a Caribbean Therefore, despite all the travel restrictions Now, those with family on the island can vacation impossible for thousands of Span- imposed by Washington’s 50-year-old embar- visit as often and for as long as they wish. iards, Italians, Greeks and others. go against Havana, Americans may very well People-to-people travel to Cuba has also be the most common foreign- That’s largely thanks to opened up, allowing Americans without fami- Canada, which has sent more ers in Cuba after Canadians. It’s no surprise that tourist ly connections the possibility of visiting the than 800,000 of its citizens to island as long as they’re engaged in “pur- Cuba so far this year. arrivals closely track the mag- nitude of problems back home. poseful travel” rather than outright tourism. In fact, since 2007, arrivals “The president, the secretary of state and from Canada have gone up by While British, French and 10.3% annually. At that rate, more German visitors keep coming than two million Canadians will (and those three countries en- be visiting the Caribbean’s lar- joy the strongest economies in gest island every year by 2018. Western Europe), tourist arri- In second place was the 27- vals from Spain and Italy have LUXNER LARRY member EUropean Union. EU dropped off dramatically. nations sent a combined 425,000 In Spain’s case, arrivals in vacationers to CUba between the first eights months of 2012 January and August 2012 — a 5% tumbled by a whopping 23%. drop from the year-ago period. Spain now accounts for only Worldwide, the top sources of 2.8% of all visitors to the island tourism to Cuba, said the govern- — a figure that hardly corre- ment’s Oficina Nacional de Esta- sponds to the stereotype of the dísticas, are Canada, Great Brit- typical foreign tourist in Cuba: Signs guide tourists to 3 popular hotels in Havana. ain, Italy, France, Argentina, Ger- a middle-aged Spaniard male many, Russia, Spain and Mexico traveling alone or in a group. myself obviously feel really strongly that peo- — with fewer numbers coming Similarly, arrivals from Italy ple-to-people is the right thing to do — for from the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria. have fallen 5% this year. But U.S. citizens to be able to interact with Cuban No one knows for sure how many Cuban- the Italians, Unlike their Spanish coUnter- citizens,” Roberta Jacobson, assistant secre- Americans visit the island, because ONE does parts, have been traveling to Cuba in lesser tary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, not mention figures or separate this group by numbers since 2005 and today represent only told CubaNews an interview last month. origin. Rather, it lumps exiles in the “other” 3.8% of all tourists coming to Cuba. “What we all want is a free and democratic category, which shows 504,407 visitors in the Greece, Ireland and PortUgal — three Cuba. It is not subversion and it is not regime first eight months of 2012, up 4.9% from the other EU members whose economies are in change, but an effort to open Cuba to the 480,985 visitors in the year-ago period. huge trouble — were never big sources of world and try very hard to engage the people Yet a big chunk of these “others” — a cate- tourism to Cuba, and ONE doesn’t break out of Cuba, because our engagement with the gory that comprises 25% of all visitors — are data from those three countries. q government of Cuba is fairly unproductive.” RUBIO: TOUR OPERATORS ABUSE THE LAW Yet Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) have demanded that OFAC get tough with tour operators.