Florida Travel Agencies Suing Over New Regulations

Monday June 30, 2008

Florida travel agencies specializing in Cuba travel are suing Florida today over a bill signed by the state's governor, Charlie Crist, which will begin requiring agencies selling trips to countries on the state sponsors of terrorism list to post a $250,000 bond as of July 1, according to the Miami Herald. The bill was sponsored by Rep. David Rivera, who said of the 2006 bill he sponsored eliminating educating travel to Cuba by Florida students, "Legislators just don’t pay too much attention to what academics think."

Travel to Cuba under the Bush administration has gotten very difficult, especially for students, the group most likely to benefit from study in one of the last Communist nations on earth (and it's a short trip from the US); the US government seriously tightened restrictions on student travel to Cuba in 2004. Cuba is considered a "state sponsor of terrorism" by the US government, along with Iran, Sudan and Syria -- all countries the US government doesn't think you should visit (President Bush ordered North Korea removed from that list on Thursday). And if you do visit Cuba without meeting very strict regulations (which you're increasingly unlikely to be able to do -- for instance, your study abroad in Cuba must, as of 2004, last 10 [10!] weeks, thanks to the Bush administration's political machinations), you may pay big fines and be in big trouble.

Especially insane is that it's all political: Cuba's last overt act of hostility against the US was more than 40 years ago. The US/Cuba trade embargo that has existed since then means you cannot technically spend one cent in Cuba unless you're one of a few designated types of travelers, including students, allowed to visit Cuba with serious restrictions -- that means that unless your travel meets those criteria, you'd be breaking US law with your first cab ride on the island, for instance. Cuban travel politics in Florida are particularly complicated -- learn more about the political side of student travel to Cuba from Florida:

The Law and Cuba Student Travel:

_{Similar stuff: What are state sponsors of terrorism? | Tony Wheeler on the "Axis of Evil" | What are travel warnings? | How to Write Your Congressperson}

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