Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Havana complains US barring wrestlers from traveling to Cuba
01-18-2007

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Havana on Wednesday complained that the United States had refused for the first time to give travel permits to a US wrestling team that wanted to train in Cuba.

"They refused them the permits. We had everything ready for them here," the head of Cuba's wrestling commission Miguel Langaney said, according to the official Granma daily.

"The members of the US team are very unhappy with this measure," he said, adding that the wrestlers were planning to train in Havana and possibly participate in a championship over the weekend.

He said the team, led by Joe Warren, would "try again in the next months to come here."

Langaney said it was the first time the US denies permission to the wrestling team to travel to Cuba.

Under terms of a US embargo on the communist-run island nation, US citizens are generally barred from spending money in Cuba; that leads to an effective travel ban, though exceptions are made in some cases, notably for athletes.