CCR's Cuba Travel Project

Overview

For nearly fifty years, the United States Government has imposed a series of restrictions on travel to Cuba.  It has been the belief of our government that by prohibiting travel to Cuba, it would cut off unauthorized flows of hard currency into the Cuban economy, which would eventually topple the Castro government.  The past 49 years of embargo have proved this prediction to be grossly incorrect. 

Our Position

The Cuban government has shown it can survive without the lifeline of the United States and has been busy nurturing relationships with many other nations.  The only thing the travel embargo hurts is the American citizen by denying our right to travel where we want and in turn, deepen our political and cultural understandings of the world and ourselves.

It is the position of the Center that the Cuban travel embargo stems from an obsolete and tired Cold War rhetoric.  We live in a new and different world than we did in the early 1960's and even then, the travel embargo was misguided, ineffective and unconstitutional.  The Center believes that the travel embargo violates the 1st and 5th Amendments as well as international law.  As such, the time has long passed that we should rescind the embargo and recognize everyone's right to travel. 

Our Work

Litigation
The Center formally launched its Cuba Travel Project in the late 1990's, involving both legal and educational efforts to aid in efforts to challenge the Cuban travel embargo. 

There is a great deal of uncertainty and misconceptions regarding the legality of traveling to Cuba.  In hopes to defend individuals who were alleged to violate the embargo as well as provide information to those interested in traveling, the Center set up a Cuba travel intake and hotline.  The Center's open intake policy  lasted through 2001 and includes over 425 individuals alleged to have violated the travel embargo.  The Center has represented these individuals through the various stages of the civil penalty process, including those whose cases went to a hearing in front of an Administrative Law Judge.  The Center hopes to appeal those administrative hearings to federal district court later this year.

The Center has recently filed federal litigation challenging the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)'s so-called "Requirement to Furnish Information" (RFI). 

In addition, the Center has submitted numerous amici briefs, including challenges to the George W. Bush Administration's restrictions on family travel to Cuba 

"Wall of Lawyers" Network, public information and advocacy
Along with the Cuba Subcommittee of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), the Center created and maintains the "Wall of Lawyers" Network.  The Wall of Lawyers Network consists of attorneys throughout the country trained by the Center and the NLG to handle Cuba travel civil penalty cases at pro-bono or reduced rates. As part of the Wall of Lawyers Network, the Center and the NLG maintain a legal brief bank and distribute updated training memos.
If you are in need of an attorney or are an attorney and interested in joining our Wall of Lawyers Network, please contact our Cuba Travel Project Coordinator at: (212) 614-6470.  

The Center has also published its "Know Before You Go" guide that details the restrictions on travel to Cuba and describes available licenses for travel.  You can find a link for "Know Before You Go" in the box below.  The Center maintains an informational hotline where members of the public can call with questions pre or post travel to Cuba. 
If you have questions about the travel embargo, you can call our Cuba Travel Project Coordinator at: (212) 614-6470.

The Center also lends support to grassroots and advocacy organizations fighting for an end to the embargo.  These include the Venceremos Brigade, Global Exchange, Pastors for Peace, and the US/Cuba Labor Exchange.  Many of these organizations are on the front lines in challenging the embargo by organizing educational and political events, as well as conducting civil disobedience caravans to Cuba.  The Center also partners with non-governmental organizations based in Washington D.C., in lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill.

The Cuban 5
Lastly and related to our Cuba travel work, the Center has also been involved with efforts to appeal the conviction of five Cuban government agents, known as "the Cuban 5."  Most recently, the Center represented ten Nobel prize winners in an amicus brief to the US Supreme Court imploring the Court to review the Miami convictions of the Cuban 5. More information on this case and the brief can be found in the box on the right.