• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 08 / 08 / 2011

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By Juan Tamayo.ElNuevoHerald.com. One of the first travel companies to jump into the Cuba trips allowed by a new Obama administration policy has suspended the tours amid questions that trouble both opponents and supporters of increased travel to the island.

The luxury travel firm Abercrombie & Kent advertised its tours for non-Cuban Americans, which included salsa dancing and rum-laced mojitos, under the “people to people” travel policy unveiled Jan. 28.

It quickly sold out 13 tours organized in conjunction with the Foundation for Caribbean Studies, holder of one of the licenses to organize people to people trips issued by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC).

But an OFAC statement on July 25 pointed at problems with A&K’s arrangement with the Foundation, and sparked questions about the California-based group.

As a result of the OFAC statement, the company “suspended all Cuba-related travel bookings until it can ensure it is fully compliant with this new guidance,” A&K media relations manager Jean Fawcett wrote in an email to El Nuevo Herald.

People to people travel started under President Clinton to allow non-Cuban U.S. residents to engage in “meaningful interaction” with everyday Cubans in "support of their desire to freely determine their country’s future.’’ Cuban Americans travel for family reunifications, but all tourist visits are illegal.

The Bush administration shut people-to-people travel amid widespread complaints that Americans were engaging in thinly disguised tourism, and President Barack Obama reopened it Jan. 28.

Without naming names, OFAC’s July statement noted that companies that do not have a license to organize Cuba trips cannot use another firm’s license. Fawcett confirmed A&K does not have an OFAC license.

OFAC guidelines also indicate that it prefers, but does not require, that its people-to-people licenses go to entities experienced in such trips, and ban one enterprise from holding licenses for both people to people and regular Cuba travel, known as a “travel service provider” or TSP license.

The Foundation for Caribbean Studies was registered only 11 days after Obama reopened the people to people travel, according to business records reviewed by El Nuevo Herald.

Its web site includes no telephone number or location, and its pages on travel to countries other than Cuba, such as Haiti, appear to be copied from United Nations web pages.

The records list two addresses, including one in a Newport Beach, Calif., building used by three companies that offer “virtual office” services, such as mail drops and telephone answering services.

The other address is listed in real estate records as a residence in nearby Newport Coast owned by Michael and Lisa Zuccato. Michael Zuccato is president of Cuba Travel Services, a licensed TSP with offices in California and South Florida.

The foundation’s business records list its president as Margaret Alice Zuccato. There was not immediate way of determining the relationship between her and Michael Zuccato.

A CTS employee in Newport Beach told El Nuevo Herald that Michael Zuccato could not be reached because he was in Havana. Margaret Zuccato also could not be located for comment on this story.

A Treasury Department spokesperson said she could not say whether OFAC would allow close relatives to hold both TSP and people-to-people licenses because the U.S. agency handles each approval on a case-by-case basis.

The foundation’s agreement with A&K came under scrutiny last month after South Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen complained to OFAC that some of the companies in the people-to-people travel business were giving the misimpression that tourist travel to Cuba is now allowed.

Cuban Americans in the U.S. Congress generally oppose the people-to-people travel, arguing that most of the money spent goes to the Cuban government.

But the OFAC decision to issue a people-to-people license to the foundation also frustrated some supporters of increased U.S. travel to Cuba.

They argue that OFAC should have been careful in issuing the first people-to-people licenses, in order to avert scandals that would provide easy ammunition to opponents of Cuba travel.

“Clearly it would be wise to err on the side of respected, established institutions with real experience in organizing foreign educational travel,” said Robert Muse, a Washington lawyer who closely follows U.S. regulations on travel to Cuba.

“Such an approach would protect the people-to-people program from criticism and allow it to achieve its potential for better U.S.-Cuba relations,” Muse noted in an email to El Nuevo Herald.

Instead, he added, “it would be extraordinary, if true, that an organization with no history, and therefore no experience in organizing foreign educational travel, was granted one of the very first licenses for people-to-people travel to Cuba.”

Source: //www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/07/2347341/us-company-suspends-cuba-tours.html#ixzz1UM6RPrvU