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CNN Live At Daybreak

Americans Breaking the Law by Traveling to Cuba

Aired March 08, 2002 - 06:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Finally on DAYBREAK, like their grandparents who may have frequented speakeasies during prohibition, Americans who book travel restrictions to Cuba are getting a rush. But some travelers come down fast from that high when they realize the final cost of their trip.

Here's CNN Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman.

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Every year, cigar lovers from around the world descend upon Havana for the International Cigar Festival. Among them, scores of Americans.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Having a wonderful time in Cuba.

NEWMAN: They come to huff and puff on Cuban cigars and to rub shoulders with Cuban President Fidel Castro at the gala dinner and auction. But the fact is attending this weeklong cigar fest is forbidden for Americans with the exception of journalists and a few others.

JAMES SUCKLING, CIGAR AFICIONADO MAGAZINE: There's probably 500, 600 people in total that have come, and I probably estimate 100 and 150 Americans have -- I wouldn't want to say, but I guess they've broken a law to come here. But you know their passions -- they have such great passion for cigars and Cuba is really the Holy Grail.

NEWMAN: And it's not just cigars. Americans are coming to Cuba by the tens of thousands through third countries to taste the music and the culture of the only communist nation in the Western Hemisphere.

GARY HEATHCOTT, AMERICAN FILM PRODUCER: So there's no question about it, you get on the airplanes and whether you're coming from Cancun or some of the other places that you might come in from, you definitely see a lot of Americans.

NEWMAN: Americans who come, an outright violation of U.S. government travel restrictions which forbid them from spending money in Cuba without a specific license. A forbidden fruit made more enticing to many precisely because it's off limits.

SUCKLING: It always seems to taste better when it's forbidden. I think that's sort of the American way. When you -- when you can't do something, you have to do it if you really like it. NEWMAN: Maybe so, but it's no longer so easy to get away with it.

On President Bush's orders, the U.S. Treasury Department has begun tracking down and punishing Americans who travel to Cuba from third countries such as Mexico, the Bahamas and Canada. That's what happened to Dona Shultz, a retired social worker from Chicago, who we spoke to last year after she returned from a bike trip to Cuba. U.S. Immigration and Customs officials were waiting at the Toronto airport.

DONA SHULTZ, TOURIST: This women was leafing through my passport very carefully and then she said to me, have you been any place else besides Canada? And I figured I'd better -- you know I'd better say something. So I said, well yes, it's probably obvious that I had my passport stamped in Cuba.

NEWMAN: A couple of months later she received a notice from the Treasury Department for a $7,500 fine. The fines can go as high as $50,000.

(on camera): Moves are afoot in Congress to lift the travel ban to Cuba, but President Bush is expected to fight until the end, or at least until November. That's when his brother, Governor Jeb Bush, is up for reelection in Florida, the stronghold of the Cuban exile community which insists that every American dollar spent here helps keep President Castro in power.

Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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