• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Congress Members Push for Fewer Travel Restrictions to Cuba

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By The Miami Herald

Mar. 15--Members of Congress opposed to the U.S. embargo of Cuba are meeting with administration officials in Washington today to discuss what they say are new restrictions on religious travel to Cuba, said Matthew Specht, a spokesman for Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.

Members of the Cuba Working Group are planning to meet with representatives from the departments of State and Treasury. More than 100 members of Congress and more than a dozen senators have sent letters to Treasury Secretary John Snow over the past two weeks complaining about tightened restrictions on religious travel and asking for explanations.

"National U.S. religious institutions and their local [congregations] have developed strong ties to religious communities in Cuba," the March 3 letter to Snow said.

"We believe it is inappropriate and unacceptable for politics and government to serve as a hurdle and now as a barrier to faith-based connections between individuals. If anything, these connections foster greater religious freedom in Cuba and contribute to a severely-lacking free-flowing exchange of ideas between the two countries."

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Miami Herald

More News in this Category