The 75-minute flight carried 89 customers filling most of the Boeing 737’s 100 seats. Each paid $445 round trip, plus $2 a pound for luggage. The trip culminated a yearslong effort by airport and political leaders to win federal approval for nonstop flights to Cuba.

“There is no reason for the United States to help enrich state sponsors of terrorism,”

I guess they just don’t get it. Maybe they care less about the Cuban people than their powerful allies. Maybe they are part of the gang who wants to control Cuba’s future on their terms.

The 25-20 vote in the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee sets the stage for a potentially blistering debate this year in both the full House and the Senate.
“We have tried isolating Cuba for more than fifty years and it has not worked,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson said. “Today’s vote demonstrates that Congress is ready to change our nation’s approach on this issue.”

But Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez said, “I oppose and will filibuster any attempt to pass the bill in the Senate. The big corporate interests behind this bill couldn’t care less about whether the Cuban people are free or not – they only care about padding their profits by opening up a new market,” and “Repression is repression and dictatorships are dictatorships, no matter where they are located or whether you want to use their resorts.”

This is one of the few issues both the left and right agree on, from the US Chamber of Commerce to Jimmy Carter. Sen. Menendez is one of the few to not realize that nearly 50 years of bad policy hasn’t worked.

Business Week has three recent articles which point to progress, according to this article:

The U.S. House of Representatives may pass a bill next month that would cut restrictions on agricultural exports to Cuba and lift a ban on travel to the island, the measure’s sponsor said.

Congressman Collin Peterson, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said he needs backing from one more lawmaker to assure the panel will pass the legislation. He expects to secure that pledge after Congress’s Easter recess, and for the measure to get approval by the full House.

And in the Senate, the sponsor of the bill, Senator Byron Dorgan said:

he will bring a bill to lift the ban on travel to Cuba to the Senate floor this summer and that more than 60 Senators will vote for it.

All of this good news has Cuba getting ready for US tourist:

Cuba’s hotels could manage a sudden influx of 1 million American tourists if the U.S. Congress lifts its 47-year ban on travel to the Communist island, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said.

Additionally, the Caribbean nation is set to expand its capacity of about 50,000 rooms, with groundbreaking scheduled for at least nine hotels in 2010, Marrero said. About 200,000 rooms may be added in the “medium to long-term,” he said. Cuba is also seeking investment partners for 10 golf courses and luxury hotels aimed at Americans, according to a ministry official.

Internet companies such as Google, supported the change in policy according to The Hill:

Google on Tuesday heralded the Treasury Department’s decision to lift federal restrictions on Web communication exports to Iran, Sudan and Cuba.
The policy shift marks a “great accomplishment,” said Bob Boorstin, director of policy communications for the search-engine giant.

During a speech at a conference in Geneva, Boorstin said Google could now offer citizens in those countries access to such services as Google Earth, its mapping software; Google Talk, its instant-messaging tool; and Picassa, its photo-sharing site.

“We are hopeful this will help people like yourselves in this room and activists all over the world take a small step down what is certainly a long road ahead,” Boorstin said.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) applauded yesterday’s introduction of a House bill that would allow for open travel for all Americans to Cuba and further facilitate U.S. agricultural exports to that nation.

The Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act (H.R. 4645) was offered by House Agriculture Committee Chairman, Collin Peterson, and is currently co-sponsored by 33 other Members of Congress, including Representatives Jerry Moran of Kansas, Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut and Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri.

The NMPF also sees the value of ending travel restrictions to Cuba:

The other critical element that H.R. 4645 would tackle is to abolish restrictions on Americans’ rights to travel to Cuba. This would facilitate U.S. exporters’ ability to conduct business with Cuba, spurring greater demand for U.S. agricultural products.

“This bill would help to address administrative and technical barriers to U.S. dairy exports to Cuba that are not in keeping with the original spirit and intent of Congress when it determined that we should be able to export agricultural products to Cuba roughly ten years ago,” said Tom Suber, President of the U.S. Dairy Export Council. “The Cuban market holds significant promise for U.S. dairy exporters but has become increasingly difficult to supply within the past few years.”

The Dorgan bill — co-sponsored by Richard Lugar, top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee; Mike Enzi, ranking Republican on the Health Committee; and Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. — would prevent the president from stopping travel to Cuba except in cases of war, imminent danger to public health or threats to the physical safety of U.S. travelers.

FL Senator Mel Martinez, a Cuban born dissenter said “This is the time to support pro-democracy activists in Cuba, not provide the Castro regime with a resource windfall.”

Senator Martinez should support freedom for Cubans in the same proven way communism was defeated in China and Russia, with American influence from travel and trade. Senator Martinez should also do what’s in the best interest of Florida’s economy by ending the Cuban embargo.

Speaking of ending the embargo, Travel is a great place to start, but lifting the embargo is what makes sense, according to Daniel Erikson, author of The Cuba Wars:

“So you would have American tourists traveling to Cuba driving around on Chinese buses, staying at Spanish hotels, eating Canadian food,” Erikson said, adding, “The only McDonald’s I’ve ever seen in Cuba is at the military base at Guantanamo Bay.”

“There is a strong likelihood that Obama will announce policy changes prior to the summit,” said Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programmes at the Inter-American Dialogue and author of The Cuba Wars. “Loosening travel restrictions would be the easy thing to do and defuse tensions at the summit.”

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A provision in a huge spending bill the U.S. House is scheduled to pass Wednesday that will lift President Bush’s restrictions on family travel and remittances to Cuba.

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From the Huffington Post, Senator Luger states:

Economic sanctions are a legitimate tool of U.S. foreign policy, and they have sometimes achieved their aims, as in the case of apartheid South Africa.

After 47 years, however, the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of “bringing democracy to the Cuban people,” while it may have been used as a foil by the regime to demand further sacrifices from Cuba’s impoverished population.

The current U.S. policy has many passionate defenders, and their criticism of the Castro regime is justified. Nevertheless, we must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests.

This is an excellent sign that change has come to Washington concerning Cuba-America Policy.