On the first anniversary of President Obama's announcement of new provisions for purposeful travel to Cuba, the situation is murky if encouraging. The Office of Foreign Assets Control led by Adam Szubin, a Bush appointee, does not publish a monthly updated list of licensees on its site as...

Yoani Sanchez has posted a New Year message on the Huffington Post bemoaning as usual the state of affairs in her homeland. She is a brilliant stylist but her pitch is for an external audience, ill disposed to Cuba as it exists today.

Ms. Sanchez is entitled...

Today I received this innovative crowdsourcing message from James Kvaal, Policy Director, Obama for America:

WE CAN'T WAIT
As Republicans in Congress continue to stall on President Obama's jobs plan, we're building a case for action based on the stories of Americans from all over the country. Take...

Finally on April 19th the Office of Foreign Assets Controls released 51 pages of guidelines implementing President Obama's new regulations on purposeful travel announced three months earlier. (Links to full text here and analysis here.)

The guidelines are a semi-breakthrough, welcome for what they do,...

The Second Annual Celtic Festival in Cuba Will Take Place Without Irish American Musicians

"Never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity!"

That snarky characterization used to be directed at the Cubans by American critics. Looks like the Obama Administration wants to take on that dubious honor for itself.

In an interview with Telemundo, reported by the Cuban Colada blog, Secretary of State Clinton sounded a cautiously optimistic note about the fate of imprisoned USAID subcontractor Alan Gross:

he should be released, and at the very least, on humanitarian terms. He should be sent home to his...

I am back from a week in Cuba that focused on how to strengthen implementation on their side of the improvement in travel regulations announced by President Obama on January 14th. My focus was on practical implications, in particular the opportunity provided by the advance beyond the Clinton Administration of...

The White House announcement on January 14 of reforms in policy affecting purposeful travel to Cuba is an important step forward.

The Obama administration overcame resistance from a powerful minority of hard line Cuban Americans and their Congressional allies in Florida and New Jersey who oppose even the...

Obama's policy proposals--whether on climate change, energy, Africa, Cuba, or Iran--are forward-leaning; he proposes adjusting old and static policies to new and evolving realities.

-- Richard Holbrooke, Foreign Affairs September/October 2008

The sad and unexpected passing of Richard Holbrooke brings to mind our periodic contact related to Indochina.

Students with downs syndrome denied future assistance by OFAC (photo by Ted Lieverman)

What's even more puzzling is the apparent indifference of the Obama team to the effect of such gestures on their supporters. One would have expected a candidate who...

The detention of Alan Gross shows no public sign of resolution.

P. J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, marked the one year anniversary of his arrest with the same old disingenuous spin characterizing Alan as:

a committed international development worker who was arrested by Cuban authorities for his activities, dedicated...

The Miami Herald ran a long story by Frances Robles anticipating the one year anniversary of the arrest of Alan Gross.

Two paragraphs caught my attention:

Her husband's detention and the loss of 70 percent of her household income forced the psychotherapist to sell her home of...

Vietnam's Sixth Party Congress adopted the policy of doi moi to renovate state dominated socialism in December 1986. European countries and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) responded by strengthening their diplomatic and economic ties. The US did not lift its unilateral embargo until February 1994, more than...

I posted on The Havana Note a few days ago about the international isolation coming from the Obama Administration's embarrassing defense at the UN of the embargo of Cuba.

This post looks at the domestic side of the Administration's isolation because of its relative immobility on the issue...

Judy Gross, the wife of the USAID subcontractor Alan Gross detained by Cuba for nearly a year, is playing a more public role on his behalf.

On October 24th Reuters published an interview of Judy by Anthony Boadle which for the first time expressed their remorse for his...

We are at a time of testing. Are the institutions of government in the U.S. finally able to overcome well-funded special interest exile politics to chart a rational course with Cuba?

The White House dismally failed the first round. It generated excitement that it would use executive authority before Congress...

Twenty years passed between the end of the war in Vietnam and establishment of normal relations by President Bill Clinton.

In the interim the U.S. maintained a unilateral economic embargo and sought fruitlessly to diplomatically isolate a country that had grievously wounded our pride and caused tens of thousands of...

If the laws governing travel to Cuba can not be changed, how is it that they were amended in June 2004?

Awhile back I posted the first on-line petition calling for freedom to travel to Cuba. One signer wrote me that he was a Cuban living now in the...

Time Magazine poses the right question, "Will the White House Fight to End the Cuba Travel Ban?"

Although not as dramatic and immediately beneficial as Congress ending all restrictions, the answer is tremendously important to US travelers and the industry that serves them.

The Obama Administration...