As soon as Lynn Pace got back from his first foreign studies trip with other Southern Methodist University MBA students, people wanted to know what it was like to travel to Cuba.

"It was enlightening, depressing and exhausting," said Pace, a senior vice president with Energy Education Inc., a Wichita Falls business. "Enlightening from the standpoint of meeting so many interesting people and learning how they would like to see their economy improve. Depressing because we saw so many good, industrious, resourceful Cubans being repressed by their government. Exhausting because we stayed on the move every minute we were there."

Pace enrolled in SMU's Cox School of Business's Master's of Business Administration program last August. As part of the curriculum, the class of 85 students traveled to Cuba recently to visit with business leaders, tour some of its growing resort industry and meet with American diplomats.

"This was my first time to travel out of the U.S., so I was kind of wet behind the ears," Pace said. "When they stopped us at Cuban immigration, they revoked all our tourist visas and changed them to business visas. It was pretty scary ...."

A special license cleared through Washington, D.C., is needed to travel to Cuba, so few American students go there. The first group from SMU arrived in 2005 to observe the effects of the U.S. trade embargo and look at future business opportunities.

Recently the Bush administration revived a four-year-old proposal that would see the United States lift the Cuban embargo in exchange for the reinstatement of democratic processes on the island.

"One minute they would be indifferent to the embargo, saying it didn't have a huge impact on their lives. The next they would talk about how they didn't have access to technology, equipment and supplies because of the evil blockade," said Pace.

Following crucial intestinal surgery in August, Cuban President Fidel Castro named his brother Raul as acting president of the Council of State. Little is known about Fidel's current condition, and Raul has kept his interim leadership low key. He has shown some interest in making the communist country's economy more flexible.

There is a thriving black market and gang activity has some Cubans trying to find housing in safer neighborhoods. Squalid poverty stands within a few hundred feet of glamorous tourist hotels where Cubans are forbidden to go if they are not employed there.

"The vast majority of money made from the tourist developments and other enterprises goes into government coffers, and it doesn't support the public welfare," he said. "The embargo is putting pressure on the government to make change."

During their stay the students met with American diplomat Michael Parmly, attached to the U.S. mission in Havana. He told them about a speech Castro made in the last year, saying aloud that one day "there would be a Cuba without Fidel." A great hush went over the crowd.

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