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Cuba bound? Not likely
By STEVE HUETTEL, Times Staff Writer
TAMPA -- The owner of a ferry that runs between Tampa and Mexico has its sights set on a destination that's been off limits to passenger vessels from U.S. ports for four decades: Castro's Cuba. But the plans appear to be dead in the water. Scotia Prince Cruises has asked the U.S. and Cuban governments for permission to make trips from Tampa to Cuba and back, Tampa port director George Williamson said Tuesday. Company officials scheduled a press conference this afternoon to discuss details. But there's one teeny problem. The federal law that restricts Cuba travel and trade don't allow it, said Betsy Holahan, a Treasury Department spokeswoman. "No seagoing (passenger) vessel has received approval to operate between the United States and Cuba," she said. "The current law does not allow for that." The U.S. government prohibits Americans from traveling as tourists to Cuba. But people with relatives in Cuba and those visiting for certain professional and educational purposes can go there legally. Charter airlines licensed by the Treasury Department flew about 160,000 Americans to Cuba last year from Miami, New York and Los Angeles, said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Economic Council. And in an exception to the 40-year-old trade embargo, U.S. companies can sell food, agricultural products, medicine and medical devices to Cuba and ship them there out of American ports. Kavulich wasn't aware the Treasury Department considered passenger ship service to Cuba illegal. But the proposal would face a long series of political hurdles, he said. Ferry service was popular before Castro took power -- a dozen ships sailed there from Tampa monthly according to Williamson -- and reviving it could be perceived as a step toward reopening the island to American tourists, Kavulich said. That's not a signal the Bush Administration wants to send, he said. Any expansion of travel also would draw the ire of anti-Castro Cuban organizations opposed to lifting the ban on American tourists. "We'd oppose it," said Dennis Hays, executive vice president of the Cuban American National Foundation in Washington, D.C. "It's a thinly veiled attempt to circumvent the embargo. The Cuban government's only interest is wedging open the embargo a little more." Scotia Prince began making twice-weekly trips from Tampa to two ports on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in November. Earlier this month, the ferry stopped trips to the Port of Morelos near Cancun because the channel was too shallow to navigate safely. That left the M/V Scotia Prince docked in Tampa for half the week. Company officials planned to use that time for the weekly Cuba cruise, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. -- Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3384.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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