US Congress maintains travel restrictions on Cuba.
Thu Nov 13, 6:19 PM ET Add Politics - AFP to My Yahoo!

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Congress approved a measure maintaining travel restrictions on US citizens to Cuba, even though both the Senate and the House of Representatives earlier passed separate measures lifting the 40 year-old ban.

The decision, reached in bargaining around midnight Wednesday, came after President George W. Bush (news - web sites) threatened to veto the measure if approved, congressional sources said Thursday.
Both the House and the Senate are controlled by lawmakers from Bush's Republican Party.
The measure -- which technically blocked money funding the enforcement of the travel ban -- was dropped as House and Senate bargainers agreed to a budget of nearly 90 billion dollars for the Treasury and Transportation departments.

The provision was withdrawn "behind closed doors and without giving an opportunity for the full conference committee to vote," according to a statement from the Washington Office of Latin America (WOLA).
Officials at the think-tank blamed the Republican leadership, and described the maneuver as a "travesty."
The Cuban foreign ministry also lamented the move. "This reaction shows once again that the US anti-Cuba policy is a total failure and must change, in that it does not represent the genuine and legitimate interests of the US people," it said in a statement from Havana.

"As for Cuba, it will continue to favor normal and constructive ties between the peoples of the United States and Cuba," the foreign ministry added in its statement headed, "A Lesson on 'Democracy' from Washington."
Meanwhile, Senator Max Baucus, the Democratic ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, said the actions "violate the will of Congress and set the stage for a fight when the bill comes to the floor."

For a "few individuals in backroom negotiations to override the will of a majority of Congress sets a dangerous, undemocratic precedent," said Baucus, one of the co-authors of the measure.
Republican congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona even declared himself "disgusted" with the outcome.
"Politics have triumphed again over principle," said Flake. "For the same reason we will never have a rational farm policy as long as presidential campaigns begin in Iowa, we will never have a rational Cuba policy as long as presidential campaigns are perceived to end in Florida."

However two Cuban-American representatives from Florida -- both vitriolic opponents of Cuban President Fidel Castro -- were elated with the outcome.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a distant cousin of Castro, thanked President George W. Bush for his "strong leadership," which he said is key to "maintaining sanctions on the Cuban dictatorship until all political prisoners are liberated and free elections are scheduled in that enslaved island."

And congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who described the compromise as "a valiant stand against the cowardly regime of Castro," said that US legislators "should not allow hard currency from unsuspecting Americans prop and aid a ruthless regime that thrives on cruelty and violence."

Also in October, the US Senate voted 59-36 to include an amendment effectively lifting the travel ban. The House of Representatives approved a similar amendment in September by a vote of 227-188.
And last week the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee approved a measure lifting all bans on travel to Cuba by a vote of 13 to 5.
The US Treasury Department estimates that some 160,000 Americans legally traveled to Cuba in 2002, but tens of thousands also visited the island illegally travelling through third countries.
On October 10 Bush announced tougher restrictions on US citizens' travel to Cuba, but said that Washington would increase the number of immigrant visas for Cubans it hands out.

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