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US Lawmakers Discuss Cuba Travel Ban

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Nov 19, 2009 12:44 pm US/Eastern

US Lawmakers Discuss Cuba Travel Ban

WASHINGTON (CBS4) ― The debate over U.S. policy towards Cuba heats up Thursday as the House Foreign Affairs Committee holds a hearing on whether to lift the U.S. travel ban to Cuba.

Republican Senator Richard Lugar and Democratic Congressman Howard Berman have already endorsed the ban. They wrote an op-ed piece in the Miami Herald which said it was time to "scrap this anachronistic ban".

Rep. Berman called it a throwback to the "chilliest periods of the Cold War.'' He suggested that contact between Cubans and "ordinary Americans"
could "help break Havana's chokehold on information about the outside world."

Those testifying in support of lifting the ban include retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the former U.S. drug czar and commander of the U.S. Southern Command; Miriam Leiva, a founding member of the Cuban opposition group Ladies in White; Ignacio Sosa, a board member of Friends of Caritas Cubana, a Massachusetts nonprofit; and Phil Peters, a Cuba analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.

Those opposed include James Cason, former chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana and president of the Center for a Free Cuba, and Berta Antunez, the sister of former political prisoner Jorge Luis Garcia Perez.
The committee won't vote on any legislation, but supporters said they hope the hearing is a first step.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed material for this report)

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