MIAMI — Although Cuba theoretically remains off limits to American tourists, as it has for most of the 37 years of Fidel Castro's rule, more and more U.S. citizens are traveling to the Communist island in defiance of the spirit of the Trading With the Enemy Act.
Travel experts estimate that as many as 16,000 Americans will go to Cuba this year as tourists, aboard U.S. charters from the United States, on commercial flights from Mexico, Jamaica or the Bahamas, or on private boats, often from Key West, Fla. On some weekends, recent visitors report, Cuba's Marina Hemingway near Havana is jammed with U.S. yachts.
An additional 70,000 Cuban Americans are expected to travel to the island under revised federal rules that permit one annual visit to relatives in cases of "extreme humanitarian need." No proof of that need is required.
"There is a growing demand for travel to Cuba, so let's stop this screwing around," said Richard Thakin, a spokesman for Wings of the World, a Buffalo, N.Y., travel agency and an opponent of the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba.
Last year, Thakin's agency sent more than 2,000 Americans on Cuban vacations.
This year, he expects to book more than 2,500 Americans on prepaid package tours to the island, where they can visit Havana's Tropicana nightclub, rent a car and explore the Sierra Maestra mountains or join thousands of Canadians, Germans and other vacationers on the white-sand beaches of Varadero.
"More and more I overhear American English in Havana restaurants," said Francisco Aruca, a Cuban American businessman who travels frequently to the island.
Despite official U.S. policy, travelers are rarely prosecuted. And travel agencies are careful to avoid violating the letter, if not the spirit, of the law.
While no law expressly forbids U.S. citizens and permanent residents to travel to Cuba, federal regulations accomplish that goal by requiring special permission to travel there and by prohibiting U.S. travelers from spending any money there.
Issued in 1963 as part of the U.S. trade embargo against Castro's policies, the regulations are enforced by the U.S. Treasury Department. Violations carry a potential penalty of 10 years in jail and as much as $250,000 in fines.
A Treasury Department spokesman said that 16 civil actions, resulting in fines of $207,000, were initiated in the past fiscal year; most of the cases involved contraband.
