Cuba limbo: Island-bound U.S. groups face licensing questions

Cuba limbo: Island-bound U.S. groups face licensing questions
By Christopher Reynolds Los Angeles Times staff writer
September 6, 2012, 6:15 a.m.

Less than two years after President Obama set off a boom in Cuban
travel by relaxing restrictions on "people-to-people" educational
trips, Obama's Treasury Department has again tightened restrictions,
forcing cancellations and delays that have put dozens of educational
group trips in limbo.

Though Treasury officials have said little about reasons for the move,
it follows complaints by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) about "rampant
abuses" in the program, which is intended to foster "meaningful
interaction between travelers and inviduals in Cuba."

The slowdown apparently began May 10, when the U.S. Treasury
Department stiffened the requirements for the renewable one-year
licenses that allow educational tour operators into Cuba. Jeff
Braunger, program manager for the Treasury Department's Cuba Travel
Licensing, said in an e-mail that the application process was
tightened "because of reports we received" about licensed trips
failing to meet government standards.

Tour operators say a handful of organizations have been granted
renewal of their licenses, including Elderhostel's Road Scholar
program, Grand Circle Foundation and the UCLA Alumni Assn. That leaves
dozens of others in doubt as the peak Cuban travel season approaches.

At least one major educational tour operator --Insight Cuba, which was
criticized specifically by Rubio -- says its license has lapsed,
forcing 22 layoffs. Smithsonian Journeys is going through with a Nov.
9 Cuba trip, but has canceled a Nov. 30 departure because its license
(not yet renewed) will expire while the trip is in progress. Many
other groups, including National Geographic Expeditions and Stanford's
alumni group, face the prospect of canceling trips if renewals are not
granted soon.

"It's odd," said Janet Moore, owner of Long Beach-based Distant
Horizons, a travel service provider that has operated people-to-people
programs in Cuba for UCLA alumni, Harvard alumni, the Santa Barbara
Museum of Art, the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia and about 15
other U.S. academic and arts groups in the last year.

She acknowledged that different groups might offer trips with
different merits. But the programs she works with have comparably high
standards, Moore said, and so far only the UCLA alumni group has had
its license renewed.

For the moment, Moore said, it appears the license-renewal process
"has just stopped." If no more renewals are granted before the Cuban
travel season begins in November, Moore said, dozens of groups will
have to scrub their Cuban plans, and the number of Americans on Cuban
people-to-people trips could fall from more than 10,000 in the last
year to perhaps 3,000 next year.

Meanwhile at the Treasury Department, spokesman John Sullivan said
Wednesday that "the program remains robust." In an email the same day,
Treasury Department Cuba Travel Licensing program manager Jeff
Braunger said the department had issued about 140 licenses to
people-to-people tour operators since early 2011 and that "we are
doing our best to process both first-time applications and requesting
to renew existing licenses… It is our goal to respond in a timely
manner."

Sullivan and Braunger did not address more detailed questions about
reasons for the crackdown, the number of applications in the pipeline
and the target timetable for processing them.

At Stanford University's alumni travel organization, three Cuba trips
are planned for 2013. But until officials renew Stanford
Travel/Study's license, the group's website on Wednesday listed the
Cuba trip as "in development" with details "not yet finalized."

At National Geographic Expeditions, which has 12 Cuba trips planned
between November and June 2013, the website on Wednesday labeled those
trips "wait list only." A note added that these trips "will operate
subject to renewal of our People to People license by the U.S.
Department of the Treasury."

At Insight Cuba, the New Rochelle, N.Y.-based group that carried about
3,000 travelers to Cuba between August 2011, and June 2012, president
Tom Popper said he had been trying in vain to renew his license since
March 19.

The group filed to renew its license on that date, Popper said, then
was told to refile the application under the new May 10 guidelines,
and did so on June 26.

"What used to be 10-page application for us turned into a 174-page
application," Popper said.

On June 30, the group's existing license expired. Since then, Popper
said, Treasury staffers have asked for more information but haven't
said when or whether the license might be renewed. Unable to take
deposits or arrange tours, Insight Cuba in August laid off 22
employees, Popper said.

Meanwhile at the UCLA Alumni Assn., "I know a lot of schools have
applied, but I don't know of any others getting a renewal," said
Christel Pailet, the association's travel director. She said her group
took about 200 travelers on six sold-out trips to Cuba in 2012, "more
travelers than any other university in the U.S."

The UCLA alumni group applied for renewal on April 16, Pailet said,
then resubmitted on May 22 after the new guidelines were released. On
July 20, the Treasury Department renewed the license through July 31,
2013, she said.

How detailed was her application? Eight pages.

"If I knew why we got renewed and others didn't, I'd certainly tell
you," Pailet said.

The Treasury Department program explicitly excludes trips that are
"primarily tourist-oriented." Tour operators that fail to meet
guidelines face civil penalties of up to $65,000 per violation. The
department's Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC) regulates the
trips, which have long been subject to political tides.

The Communist-run island nation has been largely off-limits since the
U.S. announced a trade embargo in 1962. President Clinton approved
people-to-people trips and loosened restrictions in the 1990s.
President George W. Bush cut back the trips in the 2000s. President
Obama loosened some restrictions for students and religious groups in
early 2011 and others later.

But in late 2011, Rubio denounced the oversight of the program,
quoting two Insight Cuba trip itineraries and their frequent mentions
of salsa-dancing and meetings with Cuban government representatives.

Saying that the program "borders on indoctrination of Americans by
Castro government officials," Rubio called for reforms and said that
confirmation hearing of Roberta S. Jacobson --Obama's appointee to the
post of assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs --
could make a fine opportunity for more discussion of the subject.

On March 23, the Miami Herald reported that Rubio had dropped his
opposition to Jacobson. On March 30, Jacobson was sworn in.
Six weeks later, OFAC tightened the people-to-people travel
requirements. Since the handful of renewals that were granted between
then and late July, Distant Horizons' Moore said, she's unaware of any
further renewals.

Still, she added, "I'm an optimist. I'm thinking they're going to come through."

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