Missing Link

Emilie Bahr
New Orleans City Business
April 13, 2009

U.S. residents will soon be able to travel freely to the island nation off this country’s southern coast that has been off-limits to most Americans for decades if a bipartisan congressional group has its way.

Bills introduced in February propose allowing Americans to travel without restriction to Cuba. Although the legislation would not immediately affect the broader trade embargo in place since 1963, proponents see passage of the so-called Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act as a move toward the easing of U.S. rules that bar the sale of all but the most basic food and medical provisions to Cuba.

Political implications aside, local advocates of more openness with the island see in the lifting of travel and trade embargoes economic opportunity for Louisiana and New Orleans, which boasts historic cultural ties to Cuba and was once one of the country’s foremost business partners...

...Christopher Sabatini, senior director of policy at the New York-based Americas Society-Council of the Americas and a longtime observer of Cuban-American policy, called the travel bill “a difficult sell.” He said he doesn’t expect to see the trade sanctions lifted as long as the Castros are in power.

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