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Published: Monday, 29 July 2019 08:11

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Photo: PLWashington, Jul 29.- A large group of 46 Republican and Democratic legislators will present today in the United States Senate a bill aimed at eliminating travel restrictions to Cuba.

The initiative is headed by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who said in a statement that these regulations aim to allow Americans to visit the Caribbean island in the same way they can go to any other country in the world, except the Republic Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

According to the legislator for Vermont, based on his conversations with other senators, he is sure that if they are given the opportunity to vote on this project, more than 60 of the 100 members of the Upper House would support it.

This proposal, baptized as the Freedom Act for Americans to travel to Cuba 2019, would put an end to restrictions imposed under regulations of 1996 and 2000 on US citizens and legal residents in this country.

The legislation would also eliminate bans on transactions related to trips to the Caribbean country, including banking ones, Leahy's statement said.

According to the senator, it is indefensible that the federal government prevents citizens and residents from 'going to a small country 90 miles away that does not pose a threat to us.'

At a time when American airlines fly to Cuba, does anyone here, honestly, think that preventing Americans from going there is an appropriate role of the federal government? Why only Cuba? Why not Venezuela, Russia, Iran, or any other place? He questioned.

Americans overwhelmingly favor travel to Cuba. The last survey I saw, from CBS, found that 81 percent of Americans support expanding them.

However, White House officials have a different agenda, driven by purely internal political calculations, he said.

The senator regretted that the administration of Republican Donald Trump has not only pushed back the steps taken by the previous executive to encourage the approach to Cuba, but has gone further by imposing even more burdensome prohibitions on the right to travel to that destination.

The introduction of this project in the Senate occurs after last Thursday a 10-member bipartisan group, headed by Jim McGovern (Democrat) and Tom Emmer (Republican) presented an identical initiative in the House of Representatives.

Through a statement on that proposal, McGovern recalled that in June Trump banned group-to-town group educational trips, the legal method most used by Americans to go to the West Indian nation, and vetoed the departure of cruises to the island.

It is time for us to listen to the majority of Americans, Cuban-Americans and Cubans who do not support the travel ban, and get rid of it once and for all, he said. (PL)