Monday there was no love lost between Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican, and a group of Miami-based travel agents specializing in trips to Cuba.
Rivera's proposal to increase state regulation of agencies selling trips to Cuba passed through a Senate committee, but not before a heated debate from travel agents who came from Miami to speak on the issue.
''This bill is presented as an anti-terrorism bill, but what it does is stop travel from Miami and Cuba,'' Armando García, president of Miami-based Marazul Charters Travel, told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
Under Rivera's measure -- and a corresponding Senate version sponsored by Sen. Carey Baker, a Eustis Republican -- any Florida travel agency selling trips to countries on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist nations, which includes Cuba, would pay up to $2,500 in annual registration fees with the state. They also would have to place a bond of up to $25,000.
''He's playing politics with an issue that has nothing to do with politics,'' said Maria Teresa Aral, president of ABC Charters. ``This is about economic development.''
García and Aral contend that additional restrictions would force customers to fly from Mexico or the Dominican Republic to get to Cuba. Only Miami International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York are allowed by the federal government to carry flights to Cuba from the United States.
Rivera, who has pushed for similar regulatory measures, including a 2006 law banning the use of state money to fund educational trips to Cuba, seemed unpersuaded by the travel agents' arguments.
''In this case there are two business partners involved in these business activities,'' Rivera said. ``It is the travel agency here and it is the Cuban government . . . so I believe . . . that the Castro regime and their business partners here in Miami will make business decisions to stay in business in Florida.''
If the measure is approved by the Legislature, the travel agencies plan to go to court. ''This will not end here,'' García said after the vote.
