[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 11577]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              CUBA TRAVEL

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I rise to speak to the issue of the 
Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2003, S. 950, introduced by the junior 
Senator from Wyoming. I am cosponsoring this bill because I do not 
think the United States Government should tell its citizens where they 
can and cannot travel. I also think greater people-to-people contacts 
with societies living under dictatorial regimes can help encourage the 
spread of democratic ideas. It is for these reasons that I support S. 
950.
  Lifting our ban on travel to Cuba is not a gift to Fidel Castro, and 
it should not be interpreted as an endorsement of his regime or as a 
sign of diminished commitment to improving human rights conditions for 
the Cuban people. The recent harsh prison sentences meted out to dozens 
of peaceful political dissenters in Cuba, and the execution of three 
men involved in a ferry hijacking, provide further evidence of the 
fundamentally repressive and undemocratic nature of the Castro regime. 
Cuba has been stubbornly impervious to the democratizing trend sweeping 
the hemisphere in recent years. This, however, merely demonstrates the 
failure of our 40-year policy isolation.
  Lifting travel restrictions on our citizens is not likely to bring 
about a transformation in Cuba overnight. But we have already seen what 
perpetuating the ban has accomplished--nothing. We have been depriving 
our own citizen of their liberty without bringing the blessings of 
liberty any closer to the Cuban people. It is time to end this 
fruitless policy.

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