Actually thats a sign it may not be good. Agee was and still isn't looked highly upon by the US gov't. If the US gov't associates him with US Soccer. It will not help us people go legally to Cuba to watch the game. I'll just go with my French passport .
www.cubatravelusa.com If you fly through Tijuana Mexico, it should be no problem convincing the US border authorities you were just in Baja for the weekend. I went in 1994, it was the trip of a lifetime.
The NY Times tells you how to do it. JOURNEYS; Cuba: You Can't Get There From Here . . . By SETH KUGEL November 14, 2003 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpa...937A25752C1A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
That story is from 2003. info upthread indicates the Feds have been cracking down hard on these roundabout routes since then. Patriot Act and all.
As an American I hate to say this but we have one of the world's most inefficient bureaucracies. It has bad laws which it enforces badly. As an away supporter of our USMNT you have a patriotic excuse and if you don't bring back several cases of cigars you could pull it off. It does boil down to what official you get checking you coming back in on a particular day. But the fact of the matter is 200,000 Americans visit Cuba every year and of those 6000 have legal exchange/family permits. You don't hear of 190,000 getting busted, charged and fined, O.K.? One more source with up to date information is www.havanajournal.com (a Massachusetts based corporation).
No you don't. And you're right. The task of managing the threats of checking Canadian and Mexican airline passenger lists is enormous. However. I have heard of ppl getting dinged for this. And I have personally seen US Customs agents come down hard on ppl that have gone legally. And hasn't American traffic to Cuba been decimated since '04? The thing is that you run a big risk by going. If you're an experienced traveler, you can probably pull it off. If you're a novice... less likely.
Everybody agrees to disagree on this subject. But what should be happening so that USMNT fans can go to Cuba legally is that that the bureaucrats at Soccer House in Chicago, USSF Hq, should be working to get State Dept clearance for, say 200-300 US supporters to get visas to attend this match, even if it's only a one night stay in Cuba. Petition, phone calls, letters to the editor? Candidate Obama (Il senator, same state as HQ) might get into the act since he has hinted he would lift the embargo. This could happen if people try it. BTW stats show that US food producers sold over $400 million worth of foodstuffs to Cuba legally last year. You can't go to a game but agri-business is getting rich of off trade to an "embargoed" country.
Fidel "resigning" is probably not a good thing for those of us who would like to go to Cuba legally for the game. The Bush folks are likely to view anything less than the status quo as sending a signal of weakness to Raul. No olive branches from this administration.
It'll be same old, same old. Getting the Treasury Department to change course on this is a frustrating endeavor. It's not just the White House that determines this. It's career bureaucrats that compile data and feed it to policy makers and the White House. And the Treasury Department is simply too vested in this. Or so says my anti-embargo, Republican brother who works in politics in DC. It's going to take a liberalized Cuban regime combined with a White House w/ enough balls/ovaries to go against the empty threats of Miami (the Cuban-Americans are no longer unified in their blind hatred of Castro; most young adults are against the embargo, for instance) and the career bureaucrats involved in policy-making. Sorry to get political, but I think it's fair to say that both parties have p-lenty of presidents who were impotent against Fidel.
Maybe, maybe not. This could turn out to allow for an agreement that would save tremendous amounts of face on both sides. Raul promises supervised democratic reforms by such and such a date, the US drops or at least loosens the embargo. The US stance on Cuba over the years has been aimed personally at Fidel Castro almost as much as it has at the Cuban communist govt in general. With Raul in power, there is hope for an agreement that Fidel would have been unwilling to make and/or the US government would not have made personally with Fidel. It's far from a sure thing, probably not even likely, but we can keep our fingers crossed. The bad news is that there's at best a 50-50 chance of it happening, the good news is that if the restrictions are loosened, you'd have to think the travel ban would be among the first to go (of course, they'd have split families in mind, but we could still benefit).
How about a weekend lifting on the embargo/travel ban by the US as a show of respect to the people of Cuba and a sign of the potential warming of relations, and we could allow a couple hundred lucky US fans to visit the stadium for the big US game? We could send Jesse Jackson and Oliver Stone and maybe Michael Moore too. Moore could make a movie about US soccer fans; fans ignored by corporate media and forced to find comfort in the lonely corners of the internet and euro-satelite stations, fans who rebel against the forcefed 'roid and commercialized fast food diet developed by the corrupt cartel of the NFL/MLB/NBA. These fans band together only a few times a year to watch the US team, in stadiums where they are almost always outnumbered despite being in the US. These are real Americans, true sports fans, who want to cheer for their team of underdogs in a qualifier for the biggest sports tournament in the world. All they want to do is go 90 miles south of Florida and sit in a corner of a crumbling stadium, outnumbered, mocked and spit on, and support the 11 guys who represent their country, the United States....here is their story.... "Swimming to Landycakes"
Yeah, Michael Moore should take up as a standard bearer of US soccer fans (like he'd cheer for us over any poor exploited third world country or enlightened European country anyway). That's exactly what the sport in this country needs.
Well he didnt die....but very good call. Anyone else find it odd they would announce this so early in the morning? Anyone else wonder if he will "live" for about another 50 years?
I have sent the following letter to USSF, I invite others to do the same/similar by letter, fax, phone, and e-mail U.S. Soccer Federation 1801 S. Prairie Ave. Chicago, IL 60616 Phone: (312) 808-1300 Fax: (312) 808-1301 Email to http://www.ussoccer.com/contact/index.jsp.html Dear Sirs: As a USMNT supporter who has been to two World Cups and several WC Qualifiers, both home and away, I would like to ask the USSF what your office plans to do to accommodate the wishes of numerous US supporters who have stated their intention to support our team when it (most likely) will play the national team of the Republic of Cuba this Fall? We are all aware that a strict economic embargo is in effect, limiting travel and financial transactions with that country. However, should the USSF decide to support the fans who wish to travel to Cuba to cheer our team on, you could do the following.: 1. Apply to the State Department for a cultural exchange permit for a small group of US supporters (200-300) to accompany the team. 2. Arrange for a charter flight that could fly the group in (on the same schedule as our team) and out of Cuba. Your support for a legal group of US Supporters travelling to Cuba would reduce the chance of Americans travelling to Cuba through 3rd countries on their own, thus breaking U.S. laws and running the risk being charged and fined by US Customs upon their return for the simple reason that they wanted to cheer on an American soccer team participating the FIFA World Cup Qualifying round. American soccer has friends in the House and Senate who could support any move you make on this project. Even President Bush called the team before our match against Mexico in 2002 so perhaps he could be asked to intervene personally in this matter and lift the restrictions just this one time. Cuba is at a turning point in its history. I remember a certain American table tennis team that was instrumental in opening up the People’s Republic of China in 1970. A group of American soccer supporters could perhaps do just the same thing in 2008. Sincerely, Sven A.Serrano Setsunan University, Osaka Japan
"FOR Americans, traveling to Cuba is not actually illegal, but it might as well be. Since 1963, the United States has prohibited its citizens from spending money in Cuba, with exceptions for students, journalists, Cuban-Americans and others who the government says have legal reasons to travel there. For all other tourists, unless they can figure out how to spend no money in Cuba, going there means risking a $7,500 fine even if they travel through a third country." It's not actually illegal to go there, just spend money there. But anyway, how does this impact someone that has a green card and a Mexican passport. It's not like...the people who are in charge for checking for American citizens on those flight manifest would spot someone with all Mexicans documents, right? Hell, I think if I get my grandparents to pay for my trip....I wouldn't be breaking any law whatsoever.
I don't claim to know anything about Antigua and Barbuda, but they're ranked ahead of most Carribean minnows, and Cuba is pretty lousy. So I think it's still not a given that Cuba make it to the semi-final stage.
Cuba wasn't that bad at the Gold Cup and unless had their team defected and I didn't hear about it. I expect them to win.
Not only did they have a good showing at the Gold Cup, they gave Costa Rica a run for their money the last WCQs.
The Cuban Federation is so broke that they pay their German coach room, board, and expenses, no salary. He's also taking them to Germany to train, so they will have some tricks up their sleeve. All the more reason to get a USA supporters group to Cuba in Sept.