Robert Torricelli: “The point is, Americans clearly do in Cuba have the freedom to leave the hotels and wander around the island. As Senator…”

“The point is, Americans clearly do in Cuba have the freedom to leave the hotels and wander around the island. As Senator Graham has pointed out, nearly 100,000 Americans went to Cuba last year. So this is not a question that many Americans cannot go. It has simply been the Clinton administration's view to restrict the number so as not to give Castro great financial rewards. One hundred thousand Americans go. The point I was making with Senator Graham was not to give people the illusion that Americans in a hotel on the beaches near Havana are going to receive Cuban visitors. The average Cuban is not allowed on the hotel grounds on these compounds. This is not going to be people visiting President Havel in his office. They are not allowed to go there. They can't spend money there. They can't be guests there. They are foreign compounds. You might as well be on a beach somewhere on a desert island in the Pacific. They are restricted. I thank the Senator from Florida for yielding.”