Obama: Cuba Travel Restrictions To Be Eased

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- President Barack Obama plans to loosen Cuban travel policy to allow students and church groups to go to the communist country, the administration announced Friday.

Students seeking academic credit and churches traveling for religious purposes will be able to go to Cuba. The plan will also let any American send as much as $500 every three months to Cuban citizens who are not part of the Castro administration and are not members of the Communist Party.

Also, more airports will be allowed to offer charter service. Right now, only three airports – in Miami, Los Angeles and New York City – can offer authorized charters to Cuba. That will be expanded to any international airport with proper customs and immigration facilities as long as licensed travel agencies ask to run charters from the airport.

On Friday, one Florida airport was already taking steps to offer service to Cuba.

"This is great news from an international air service development standpoint," Tampa International Airport CEO Joe Lopano said in a news release. "We will begin meeting with air charter companies and working with the Federal Authorities to make sure we meet all requirements for these Cuba flights."

The White House press office sent out a release saying Obama had directed the changes, which do not need congressional approval. They will be put in place within two weeks.

Changes that Obama made last year already increased Cuban-Americans' ability to visit family and send money to relatives. The changes are similar to travel policies under President Bill Clinton. Critics said they will not improve the lives of Cubans.

"Loosening these regulations will not help foster a pro-democracy environment in Cuba. These changes will not aid in ushering in respect for human rights. And they certainly will not help the Cuban people free themselves from the tyranny that engulfs them," said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and the House Foreign Affairs Committee chair. "These changes undermine U.S. foreign policy and security objectives and will bring economic benefits to the Cuban regime."

Sen. Bill Nelson's office earlier confirmed the changes after the State Department briefed him, but Nelson was traveling and couldn't be reached for comment on the plans.

Pepe Hernandez, head of the moderate Cuban-American National Foundation, called the changes very positive, most importantly the decision to allow all Americans to send money to Cubans.

"It's going to help the interaction between regular Cubans and U.S. citizens, it's going to help Cuban people inside the island to gain independence from the Cuban government, especially now that roughly a million will be without jobs," he said, referring to Raul Castro's decision to reduce the government workforce.

Hernandez said the Cuban government would get some benefit from the remittances, but that he could live with that because Cuban citizens, particularly dissidents, would now have another source of support.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski, the top Catholic leader in South Florida, applauded the changes.

"The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops has worked tirelessly for years with White House representatives promoting greater contact between people of Cuba and the free world," Wenski said.

Several Cuban-Americans interviewed in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood said they had no problems with the changes.

"At the best, it's good for those students to see how bad it is," said Marta Bergasa, 60, a lab technician who was born in Cuba. "The problem is the students from there cannot come here."

Others don't think the changes will do any good. Maria Vazquez, owner of the Sentir Cubano memorabilia shop, said the change would not do anything to help democracy in Cuba.

"I'm totally against the idea," Vazquez said.

"I think what our country needs is freedom, not these little patches of students going to Cuba."

___

Associated Press writers Matt Sedensky, Christine Armario and Laura Wides-Munoz in Miami contributed to this report.

Comments

[purenergy]

06:42 AM on 01/19/2011

Its about time.

[negotiatethis]

11:35 AM on 01/18/2011

It should be pointed out that President Obama cannot simply "lift the embargo." He can relax the enforcement, and is doing so to some extent. But the embargo is a law that must be changed by congress and signed into law by the President. http://talkingcuba.wordpress.com/

[negotiatethis]

11:32 AM on 01/18/2011

Nearly 100,000 Americans travel to Cuba each year without a license. THey go through Cancun, Bahamas, Canada, and other places. All other countries allow free travel there. When are we going to look at our policy and do something evidence based instead of emotion based? http://talkingcuba.wordpress.com/

[I Fortuna]

06:57 PM on 01/17/2011

I think it takes time for the Cuban people to be reintroduced to free world living. It is my opinion that students and church groups are an effective bridge of friendship and cultural exchange that are much needed between the U.S. and Cuba. Change does not happen overnight.

[Congo Line]

09:32 AM on 01/18/2011

Cuba is exposed to people from all over the world with the exception of the US. All the time. It's a popular vacation destination for every other country. So, to your point, they are already familiar with "free world living"

Ask yourself, why you can freely go to Iran, Iraq and Afrghanistan--seats of terror that have killed scores of people in the US and you can't go to Cuba. It's not because Cuba's "not free" And how free are you if you can't go?

Change in the mindsets in the US, indeed, won't happen overnight.

[shinola]

03:07 PM on 01/17/2011

Let's see---I can buy a ticket to communist China today, or Russia as well....but I can't for Cuba unless I'm studying there or part of a church group? That is lame, lame, lame. Methinks a teeny-tiny microscopic little political demographic in this country has way too much power.

[Congo Line]

09:33 AM on 01/18/2011

Methinks you are right Shinola. A grossly disproportionate amount of power for that tiny, Fla. based demographic.

PS-I love your screename. For that, you are so fanned!

[lexingtonKY]

01:53 PM on 01/17/2011

Cold War 2011 --------- US v Cuba

What a joke. Stop the embatgo once and for all and end the red scare of the 1960s.

[myrtle1909]

01:19 PM on 01/17/2011

It is about time. He should also lift the embargo that would help the economy in the country. If you want to bring about change you show and tell. show the people how life in the United States is a good life. do not berate their life just show by example. I don't understand why we still have the embargo it has only hurt the people of cuba not it's leaders.

[Chaotician101]

12:14 PM on 01/17/2011

Who knew the Mafia had so much power? Punishing Castro for stealing their casinos for 40 years?
And I suppose the political support of Cubans in Fla. may be part of the silly embargoes! Time already to just normalize relations; strange that we have "normal" relations with Russia, China, and the like; but treat this little island as some big boogeyman! While we are at it, let's give them back Guantanamo!

[Trogenhorse]

10:58 AM on 01/17/2011

I support the president in this move. It is past time. There is a definite line in the sand in the Cuban community. The issue is not that of one community but the weight of this country. That means we must have a foreign policy in line with the principles of this country.

[jokerdanny]

10:23 AM on 01/17/2011

Why are religions allowed to go in and establish a foothold before other Americans are allowed to go with their point of view?

[shinola]

03:09 PM on 01/17/2011

Prolly to shake up them "god-less commies". What a joke.

[I Fortuna]

07:16 PM on 01/17/2011

Many of the people of Cuba are Christians, mostly Catholic. I think this is a move that encourages friendship not hostility. The Cuban government is part of this decision I believe. It appears everyone wants to be sure that more passive or less dangerous individuals are allowed in the country, a good step forward.

[Manny S]

10:03 AM on 01/17/2011

WHEN WILL THE BAN ON CUBAN CIGARS BE LIFTED....yes i am yelling i want this ban lifted NOW it soils my pursuit of happyness

[Rahm11219]

09:37 AM on 01/17/2011

So we can send people down their to shove Jesus down the throats of Cubans but I can't go there and sit on the beach?? Where's the logic there, Barry?

[jackfairwind]

08:57 AM on 01/17/2011

The whole Cuban embargo is one of the stupidest policies the US has ever had. It does nothing to help Cuba. It was instituted in a fit of pique by Kennedy in response to Cuba shutting down the brothels and gambling dens of his father's mafia buddies. It was prolonged by cowardly Florida politicians who catered to the whims of the pro-Battista crowd who fled Cuba. Such restrictions have never worked anywhere in the world. They serve only to entrench the government and provide convenient excuses fro the failure of those governments. The last poll I saw pointed out that Castro was just as popular as ever with the Cuban people. Only when we have open trade and communications with a country have we seen any real change for the better. Obama simply lacks the guts (as usual) to go all the way in doing the right thing and lifting all restrictions.

[padrushka]

08:48 AM on 01/17/2011

baby steps. this change over may take a hundred years or more.
missionaries, why?

[RobertFromMN]

05:02 AM on 01/17/2011

Entirely insufficient. Relations with Cuba should be normalized, all sanctions should be dropped, and the authoritarian travel restrictions should be lifted for everyone. The idea of my government telling me where in this world I can and cannot travel fills me with disdain and disgust for said government.

[Macready]

06:46 AM on 01/17/2011

ditto Robert . . . .

[Trogenhorse]

11:01 AM on 01/17/2011

I disagree. There are times the government should and will restrict movement. The flip side of that is an American being detained in a country where the country has no ties or communications. This puts both the individual and the government in a difficult situation trying to gain the release.