N E W S

Havana. April 28, 2005

WASHINGTON. (KRT).— As a National Guard medic stationed in Iraq, Carlos Lazo transported wounded U.S. Marines from the fierce fighting in Fallujah last year.
Back home from his one-year tour in Iraq, Lazo wants to travel to Cuba to see his two teenage sons. But tough new travel restrictions imposed by the Bush administration are keeping Lazo from going back to Cuba for another year. The rules only allow Cuban-Americans to visit the island once every three years and Lazo last saw his sons two years ago.
"Now I have to wait another year to visit my children in Cuba. This is nonsense in my opinion," said Lazo, a former Miami resident who now lives in Seattle. "The administration talks about family values, but at the same
time they prevent us from helping our families."
Lazo and about 700 activists from across the country converged on Washington for Cuba Action Day Wednesday to protest the travel restrictions and support members of Congress who are introducing legislation that would repeal the limits on travel to Cuba.
Wednesday's events included a prayer breakfast, meetings with members of Congress, an evening reception and the introduction of the legislation to repeal the travel restrictions.
The restrictions imposed last year allow Cuban-Americans to visit relatives in Cuba only once every three years.
Before, such trips could occur every year. The regulations also limit visits to immediate family members, defined as spouses, parents, children, siblings, grandchildren and grandparents. Other than Cuban-Americans, journalists and a small number of other groups also are allowed to visit the island.
U.S. law also restricts most commerce with Cuba with the exception of sales of food and medicine. The sanctions are an attempt to squeeze Fidel Castro's government economically.
"The goal of the day is to demonstrate to the Congress and the president the breadth and depth of the coalition working to change U.S. policy toward Cuba, and specifically the travel ban," said Mavis Anderson, a senior associate with the liberal Latin America Working Group.
Congress has passed legislation softening or repealing the travel ban a number of times in the last five years, only to see the provisions stripped by Republican leaders during conferences between the House and Senate. Anderson expects the same challenge this year if the legislation passes the
House or the Senate.
Opponents of the travel ban say that stripping legislation passed by both chambers in conference is anti-democratic.
"What we see here is a corruption of the political process," said Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., one of the members who introduced the legislation Wednesday.
But opponents of the travel ban were not the only ones working on Cuba policy Wednesday. A dozen members of Congress, including Florida's two U.S. senators and several members from Broward and Miami-Dade counties held a press conference on Wednesday to announce the formation of the Congressional Cuban Democracy Caucus, a group devoted to promoting the embargo agenda.