How can NPR offer a vacation tour of Cuba?

[SmackFu]

There’s a travel embargo to Cuba. The terms of it seem pretty strict and I don’t see any loopholes that would let an average American tourist visit.

So how can NPR openly advertise a tour to Cuba, with no special caveats or anything?

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Looks like you get a license from the Feds.

http://www.traveltocubanow.org/?siteID=INTERNET_Google_Cuba

Legal Travel to Cuba

Due to the Cuban embargo by the United States government, it is prohibited for Americans to travel to Cuba. However, due to our mission of promoting people-to-people cultural exchange opportunities, Cross-Cultural Solutions has obtained a special license from the United States Treasury Department which allows you to travel to Cuba legally. Cross-Cultural Solutions will also help you quickly obtain your Cuban visa and plane ticket.

http://www.mfh.org/cuba/index.html

While much of the controversial economic embargo against Cuba remains in place, the longstanding cultural blockade has been gradually lifting. U.S. policy is allowing a very limited number of cultural exchanges, and the Foundation has recently been granted a new license to conduct our traveling humanities seminar in Cuba. As a result, we are able to offer friends of the Foundation a unique opportunity to explore this warm and fascinating country, and to help us build a bridge of understanding and friendship with the Cuban people.

Seems to be for “educational” purposes, and for certain kinds of tour groups only–no “fact finding missions” of the Havana fleshpots for Joe Businessman.

[Eva_Luna]

Yep, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations offered a Cuba tour to its members a year or so ago. It was designed as a quasi-educational kind of thing, with cultural activities; it’s not like participants spent the whole time on the beach. However, it might as well have been advertised to the general public, as all one has to do to join Council is pay the membership fee, which at the time was $35/year. The trip was very popular and sold out quickly.

[peepthis]

I visited Cuba 3 years ago through a university study-abroad course, which is one of the exceptions allowing Americans to visit. Others are for journalists, charities, and, as noted above, “cultural exchanges”. Even so, there is paperwork and time to wait before you can be given the visa to go.

While there, I encountered dozens of other Yanks who’d snuck in illegally – through Canada, Mexico, or (as my group went, legally) the Bahamas. It’s not uncommon at all for Americans to sneak over.