It is 69 days, 8 hours, 22 minutes and 4 seconds until the next Habano Festival (as many of ye who listen to DWCR already know...). 5 days (February 23rd-27th) of smoking cigars, visiting factories and tobacco plantations, competitions and the FdH tradeshow. Anybody is planning to go?
Festival del Habano XI
- Thread starter Moro
- Start date
Soundwave13
BoM Feb 2010
I motion to nominate Alfonso to go as representative of the BOTL board. You must take way too many pictures & send sample mystery packages to us so that we may judge & critique.
Do I hear a second?
Do I hear a second?
One day I will go, one day.....
Volusianator
BoM Nov '07 & Jan '09
So it shall be done!
gibbleguts
BoM april 09
I am going kind of a last minute thing that I couldn't pass up. I won't quite smoke to Kumar's standard but I don't think anyone will. Will also do a little fishing.
openendstraight
Grand Corona
About 10k payable to:
Office of Foreign Asset Control
US Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC 20220
when you return. .:rolling:
Around $300 USD, plus Visa.
openendstraight
Grand Corona
I think some people on here are misunderstanding the issue with the US and Cuba. The trade embargo doesn't cover travel to Cuba. It just limits what you can purchase and bring back. Until 2004 you could travel to Cuba and bring back up to $100 US in Cuban merchandise. Bush put a stop to that. You could travel to Cuba as long as you did not spen your own, or another Americans money there. In 2004 Bush also put a stop to that. If you were a Cuban/American that was bornin Cuba you could go back as much as you like, in 2004 Bush put a stop to that. Now if you were a Cuban national living in the US you can go back once every three years.
Most everybody in the world, EXCEPT Cuban-born-non-Cuban citizens, and EVERYBODY under United States jurisdiction, can travel to and from Cuba freely. If you are a Cuban-born non-Cuban citizen, you will need to apply for a visa at a Cuban Embassy. For all other North American and EEC citizens, traveling to Cuba as short-term visitors, you need a passport and the tourist cards that is issued with your plane ticket to Cuba. Cuba welcomes non-Cuban born U.S. tourists with no red tape.
For everybody under United States jurisdiction (if you are a U.S. resident, regardless of your passport) there is one additional level of complexity. The U.S. has a partial embargo of trade with Cuba. The embargo is enforced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as part of their work as a lead agency against terrorism (in 2005, 1/6th of their anti-terrorism work is focused on going after Americans who visit Cuba.) In conjunction with this, OFAC is increasingly limiting people's opportunities to learn about Cuba. For the official word on US policies go to http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/cuba/cuba.shtml. (They keep changing address on their website, wonder why?)
The US government paints with a very broad brush. They maintain that their laws apply to US citizens living anywhere AND everyone, regardless of nationality, living in the US. If you are under U.S. jurisdiction it doesn't matter if you also have another passport and travel to Cuba on that other passport. Unless you fall under one of the exception, when you return to the US, they would say that you are subject to prosecution.
If you are under US jurisdiction, regardless of your passport, there is the potential to get in trouble, by traveling to Cuba. If you choose to go you have the choice of obfuscating your travel (and committing perjury) and possibly (statistically probably) not being detected. In this case, following your dreams gets down to whether you are a risk-taker or risk averse.
Here is the gist of the situation on travel to Cuba:
It is "legal" for people under US jurisdiction to go to Cuba. BUT:
It is illegal for people under US jurisdiction to have transactions (spend money or receive gifts) in Cuba under MOST circumstances.
It is legal for American to have transactions (spend money or receive gifts) in Cuba if they have a "license", but
The government is arbitrary about how it interprets its rule and who it issues licenses to.
If you are a journalists, government officials, have relatives in Cuba, are a full-time professionals (including doctors, dental hygienists, environmentalists and actors) going to conferences or doing research, you might be able to go to Cuba, under a "General License" -- with no red tape.
Other activities they MAY be approve under Specific Licenses.
So you see you can travel to Cuba if you are a US citizen. You just have to prove you did not spend one peeny while doing so.
They could keep the trade embargo, and just lift the travel restrictions. You could visit, but not return with anything form Cuba.
Most everybody in the world, EXCEPT Cuban-born-non-Cuban citizens, and EVERYBODY under United States jurisdiction, can travel to and from Cuba freely. If you are a Cuban-born non-Cuban citizen, you will need to apply for a visa at a Cuban Embassy. For all other North American and EEC citizens, traveling to Cuba as short-term visitors, you need a passport and the tourist cards that is issued with your plane ticket to Cuba. Cuba welcomes non-Cuban born U.S. tourists with no red tape.
For everybody under United States jurisdiction (if you are a U.S. resident, regardless of your passport) there is one additional level of complexity. The U.S. has a partial embargo of trade with Cuba. The embargo is enforced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as part of their work as a lead agency against terrorism (in 2005, 1/6th of their anti-terrorism work is focused on going after Americans who visit Cuba.) In conjunction with this, OFAC is increasingly limiting people's opportunities to learn about Cuba. For the official word on US policies go to http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/cuba/cuba.shtml. (They keep changing address on their website, wonder why?)
The US government paints with a very broad brush. They maintain that their laws apply to US citizens living anywhere AND everyone, regardless of nationality, living in the US. If you are under U.S. jurisdiction it doesn't matter if you also have another passport and travel to Cuba on that other passport. Unless you fall under one of the exception, when you return to the US, they would say that you are subject to prosecution.
If you are under US jurisdiction, regardless of your passport, there is the potential to get in trouble, by traveling to Cuba. If you choose to go you have the choice of obfuscating your travel (and committing perjury) and possibly (statistically probably) not being detected. In this case, following your dreams gets down to whether you are a risk-taker or risk averse.
Here is the gist of the situation on travel to Cuba:
It is "legal" for people under US jurisdiction to go to Cuba. BUT:
It is illegal for people under US jurisdiction to have transactions (spend money or receive gifts) in Cuba under MOST circumstances.
It is legal for American to have transactions (spend money or receive gifts) in Cuba if they have a "license", but
The government is arbitrary about how it interprets its rule and who it issues licenses to.
If you are a journalists, government officials, have relatives in Cuba, are a full-time professionals (including doctors, dental hygienists, environmentalists and actors) going to conferences or doing research, you might be able to go to Cuba, under a "General License" -- with no red tape.
Other activities they MAY be approve under Specific Licenses.
So you see you can travel to Cuba if you are a US citizen. You just have to prove you did not spend one peeny while doing so.
They could keep the trade embargo, and just lift the travel restrictions. You could visit, but not return with anything form Cuba.
Dude. How do you not spend "one peeny" and travel. Cab? No!, Hotel? No! Entrance Visa/ No. Can't be done without a special permit and trust me they are not free with those.
openendstraight
Grand Corona
You can travel to Cuba without a permit. Again it is not illegal to travel to Cuba. It is onlly illegal to conduct business, ie. eat, sleep (unless it is in the street), buy anything, so on and so forth. I traveled to Cuba pre Bush 04'. My wifes uncle paid for everything (he travels with a HK passport). At that time it was ok for a third country natoinal to pay for your expenses. However, Bush changed all that in 04'. I am just stating that it is not against the lwa to travel to Cuba if you are a US citizen, because it is not. Bush has made it much harder to do so. If you can prove you did not spend any money over there they can do nothing but threaten you.
gibbleguts
BoM april 09
Are there any other international brothers making it to the festival? If any are PM me and we can meet up for a smoke. If not bump and starts in 6 days woo hooo
smokemifugotem
BoM July '10
I know that this is kind of a random question...but since were on the topic:
What about Cuban goods that are purchased in neighboring countries (i.e. Canada)? Can you bring those goods into the US? Is there a $ amount of goods that can be imported? I am guessing that this has been posted before, but I searched the other night and just could not find it through the search function.
Thanks!
Nick
What about Cuban goods that are purchased in neighboring countries (i.e. Canada)? Can you bring those goods into the US? Is there a $ amount of goods that can be imported? I am guessing that this has been posted before, but I searched the other night and just could not find it through the search function.
Thanks!
Nick