WASHINGTON — It’s time for Congress to end restrictions that for more than half a century have prevented most Americans from visiting Cuba, a bipartisan group of senators said Tuesday.
The lawmakers, at a news conference where they were joined by trade and human rights groups, also made clear that their proposal to allow travel should be a first step toward breaking down economic and trade barriers between the two countries.
The travel embargo, said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., is a “failed policy that has failed for 50 years.”
Lawmakers have been trying for years to chip away at the trade and travel bans imposed after Castro took power in Havana in 1959. They have made little headway because of strong political resistance led by Florida’s influential Cuban-American community.
But the situation has changed in the past year with an ailing Fidel Castro turning political control over to his brother Raul and the election of President Barack Obama, who like other Democratic presidents is more open to increasing nonpolitical contacts with the Cuban people.
Supporters stressed that Cuba is the only country in the world to which the United States bans travel; there are a few exceptions, such as for journalists or humanitarian visits. They said open travel would make Cubans more favorable to American people and ideas.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. said that while there is support for lifting the travel ban, it was too early to talk about ending the trade embargo.
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