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Thousands of US citizens demand end of travel
restrictions to Cuba
WASHINGTON.—Thousands of US
citizens from all areas of the country arrived in
Washington for a so-called Cuba Action Day to call
for an end to restrictions on travel to the island,
two days after three senators reintroduced a bill
defense of their demands.
“We believe that all US citizens
have the fundamental right to travel anywhere they
want,” affirmed Senator Max Baucus (Democrat,
Montana), who presented the bill together with his
colleagues Mike Enzi (Republican, Wyoming) and Byron
Dorgan (Democrat, North Dakota).
“We can’t believably urge others
to prioritize freedom if we don’t even respect the
most fundamental right of our citizens to travel
anywhere they wish,” he insisted.
Baucus stated that the recent
tightening of travel restrictions – even for
Cuban-US individuals – are inhumane and are
destroying Cuban families.
Cuban-US Sergeant Carlos Lazo,
who fought for the United States in Iraq all last
year and is now separated from his children in Cuba,
attended the conference.
When he tried to use his two-week
military vacation to visit his two children in Cuba,
the government refused it (…). “I am sure that these
are not the values that the United States
represents,” Baucus said.
From June last year, after the
intensification of the blockade ordered by George W.
Bush, Cuban-US individuals can only travel to Cuba
once every three years instead of once a year, and
can only visit direct relatives such as children,
parents and siblings, but not an aunt or an uncle or
a cousin, for instance.
To counteract these opinions and initiatives in
search of a wider aperture towards the island, seven
senators and 17 US officials who defend the blockade
and travel restrictions to Cuba have launched a
legislative committee. (AFP)
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