University's Cuba program is unique offering

A study program being put together by Southeast Missouri State University will offer students a chance to do something many Americans would like to do but can't: spend a few weeks visiting Cuba.

Americans are effectively barred from traveling to the communist island by regulations that prohibit them from spending money there.

American journalists, humanitarian workers, academic researchers and some Cuban-Americans get U.S. permission to spend money in Cuba, and that allows them to go there on chartered flights from the United States.

But many Americans sneak into the country and return home with barely a trace. They get there by boat or by plane from third countries such as Canada or Mexico. Getting caught can mean a fine of up to $55,000, although the average is about $7,500.

Tourism has been steadily increasing the past 15 years, becoming a major currency earner for Cuba. The U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a nonpartisan business organization focusing on Cuba, estimates 173,000 Americans visited the island last year -- 22,000 without U.S. approval.

The Cuban government says a total of 1.7 million tourists visited in 2000, and Cuba's tourism industry, which welcomes U.S. currency, says the island would like for more Americans to visit.

There is an effort in Congress to end the travel ban, but President Bush seems unlikely to support it. He has promised not to relax the four-decade-old economic embargo of Cuba until it holds free elections and releases political prisoners.

And the United States is enforcing the ban. The U.S. Treasury Department has been stepping up enforcement of the travel restrictions. Officials mailed 74 letters during the first four months of this year to people suspected of traveling to Cuba without permission, but over the past three months 443 letters have been sent.

Why all the interest in a country that lacks basic freedoms and material goods, rations and food and has fallen into a general state of disrepair?

One of the biggest lures is the fact that Cuba is off limits. There is always a special intrigue about places your government says you can't go.

Some go there for the island's beaches, to hike its mountains and to enjoy the entertainment Old Havana has to offer. But far more go to see a communist country at work before inevitable changes take place.

And that is how students who can foot the $1,000 or so it will cost to visit Cuba through the university's federally approved study program -- one of 16 in the nation -- will benefit. It will offer a chance of a lifetime and a valuable educational experience.