Aface-off over Facebook is just one of many skirmishes that have erupted between the White House and embargo supporters over the liberalization of U.S. travel to Cuba.

As part of the Obama administration’s “people-to-people” policy, the U.S. Interests Section in Havana recently organized a contest for Cuban youth, called “Memories of Summer.” The contest urged kids them to send photos of their
vacations to USINT’s Facebook page. The U.S. mission promised prizes for the best shots.

Dozens of images of beaming Cuban youths having fun on beautiful beaches and touring picturesque towns and the island’s verdant countryside were submitted.

That infuriated Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (RFL), a Cuban-American exile who chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. She accused the State Department of promoting tourism in Cuba, demanded that USINT-Havana stop the “deceptive nonsense” and asked Cubans to instead “submit pictures of the many crimes committed by the Castro regime.”

The State Department is brushing off Ros-Lehtinen’s complaints, with one of its officials saying simply that “[the photos] are not at all intended to promote tourism” and that “we do these contests all the time.”

But embargo supporters in Congress — especially those who are Cuban-American — have mounted a vigorous attack on President Barack Obama’s Cuba travel policy. And even if their efforts are long shots, the government in
Havana is clearly worried.

In 2009, Obama eased Bush-era restrictions on exile travel to Cuba, and at the beginning of this year, he liberalized other types of travel to the island.

That’s likely to result in some 400,000 Cuban-American trips this year. Relaxation of these drules has also sparked a rash of interest from more than a dozen U.S. airports in hosting charter flights to Cuba. In addition, it’s also set off a flurry of religious and academic excursions to the island.

The president seems committed to his new policy. In fact, he’s threatened to veto any bill that limits his authority over Cuba travel.

But embargo supporters are trying to turn back the clock to much more restrictive Bush-era policies, and are promoting legislation to do just that.

DÍAZ-BALART BILL LIKELY TO GO NOWHERE

In July, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) won approval from the House Appropriations Committee for a measure that would limit Cuban-American travel and remittances, which are now unrestricted. With little opposition — even among key Democrats on the committee — Diaz-Balart’s measure was attached to a bill that would fund the U.S. Treasury Department’s operations next year.

The Castro government has condemned Díaz-Balart’s bill. Juan Jacomino, press officer at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, sent out an email calling the measure the “evil workings of Cuban-American legislators.”

Sarah Stephens, director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, is furious.

“This cruel amendment will divide Cuban families, prevent sons and daughters from gathering for funerals or family health crises on the island, and strip away financial support at the precise moment when economic reforms in Cuba make it possible for Cubans to live more independent lives by forming businesses,” she said in a June 24 press release.

The Cuba Study Group, headed by Miami businessman Carlos Saladrigas, had a few comments of its own on the proposed bill.

“It is unfortunate that Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart continues to use the suffering of Cuban families as a weapon in furthering a failed policy aimed at the Cuban regime,” said the CSG. “At a time when the Cuban government has found it necessary to implement reforms, his efforts only add to the isolation and suffering of the Cuban people and make a democratic transition on the island less likely.”

Díaz-Balart told CubaNews that family remittances have now become “the largest funding source for the Castro regime.” He cited an International Monetary Fund study that says increased U.S. travel helped Cuba weather a recent downturn of travel from other countries.

“The Obama administration is bailing out the Castro regime at a time when they are struggling financially. That is unacceptable,” Díaz-Balart said, adding that Havana’s strong reaction to his legislation is proof of how crucial
U.S. travel is to the island’s economy.

Fellow Republican Rep. David Rivera, another Cuban-American lawmaker from Florida, won approval for similar legislation in the House International Affairs Committee which he attached to a State Department authorization
bill. Again, there was little resistance to that move by committee Democrats.

But that bill is expected to die in the Senate. For years, the House and Senate have not been able to agree on a State Department authorization bill, and Congress is even more polarized now.

“We’ll have our bill, the House has their bill, and in the end, nothing will happen,” said an aide to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is headed by Sen. John Kerry (DMA), an embargo foe.

As for Díaz-Balart’s bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee will likely strip out all riders House GOP members have put on spending bills — especially those with veto threats.

“Any suggestion the Senate would simply rubber-stamp a House appropriations bill is false,” said committee spokesman John Bray.

NEWSPAPER AD UPSETS ROS-LEHTINEN

To defend its Cuba policy from allegations it promotes tourism, on July 24 the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a “Cuba Travel Advisory” that blamed media “misstatements” for suggestions that U.S. foreign policy now allows Americans virtually unrestricted group travel.

“Although OFAC amended the Cuban Assets Control Regulations … in January 2011 to expand licensing of travel to Cuba for certain specific purposes, the amended regulations still contain significant travel restrictions,” the advisory said.

It cited who can and cannot get licenses to travel to Cuba and warned that “civil and criminal penalties may result from a violation of the regulations.”

Ros-Lehtinen had taken issue with an advertorial written by a local travel agency. That advertorial, which ran in the Monroe News Star, a small Gannett newspaper in Louisiana, claimed “travel to Cuba is no longer limited to humanitarian or government-sanctioned travel groups.”

“So are you the kind of person who can put ‘been there, done that’ on your travel resume?” the ad asks. “Well, today is your lucky day! I have a new destination — only 30 minutes from Key West — to offer you: it is now legal for American citizens to go to Cuba!”