Obama opens up travel and money tranfers to Cuba
 

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is allowing Americans to make unlimited trips and money transfers to family in Cuba and easing other restrictions Monday to usher in a new era of openness toward the island nation ruled by communists for 50 years.

The formal announcement was being made at the White House Monday afternoon, during presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs' daily briefing with reporters, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity before the announcement.

With the changes, Obama aims to lessen Cubans' dependence on the Castro regime, hoping that will lead them to demand progress on political freedoms, the official said. About 1.5 million Americans have relatives on the island nation that turned to communist rule in 1959 when Fidel Castro seized control.

Obama had promised to take these steps as a presidential candidate. It has been known for over a week that he would announce them ahead of his attendance this weekend at a Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

"There are no better ambassadors for freedom than Cuban Americans," Obama said in a campaign speech last May in Miami, the heart of the U.S. Cuban-American community. "It's time to let Cuban Americans see their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers. It's time to let Cuban American money make their families less dependent upon the Castro regime."


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This ought to be a little more newsworthy than dogs and 'did he bow'.

Great. Cuba.

Lots of other "promises" made that I would rather see enacted, or at least addressed.

I mean, this one requires about zero effort or time on his part, and seems logically sound - it's not like Western Union or tourist dollars (which still flow in anyway, through Mexico) are going to suddenly create the Marxist utopia Fidel promised.

This is only for Cuban Americans... its absolutely stupid. If they are allowed to go then everyone should be allowed to go.

Here's a cool site for that: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

It's only one step to allowing that to happen in the future.

Read the entire article.

There is more to be done before we can just simply open the floodgates and everyone and their mama just goes running off to Cuba. There are things that CUBA must do first before that is allowed to happen.


Think about it.

That's too difficult for a lot of people.

I know plenty of white people who have been to Cuba with no problem.

And this is about race....because...what exactly?

Let me attempt to get you back on track again.

This isn't about trying to open up the borders immediately or who gets to go to Cuba.

This is about trying to build a better relationship with Cuba and trying to assist Cuban citizens with making progress in their country.

In short, it's the US putting the ball in Cuba's court so that if it wants sanctions raised and a larger portion of the 'world pie' so to speak, that if the US is willing to extend a gesture, Cuba will do the same.

What you are talking about has nothing to do with the change in US polciy to Cuba.

Please...read...the article...in its entirety.

Thank you, I almost choked on my dinner.

Are they Canadian?

I wouldn't mind sipping on a mojito in Old Havana before crashing at Hemingway's pad

I read it the first time... I brought up nationality because this policy is partially based upon nationality.

To me this is two separate policy decisions: one is travel but the important one is the money. I see this as a way for wealthy Cuban-Americans to funnel money to Cuban opposition parties and eventually move the country towards a revolution. If there's one thing that every Cuban-American I've ever met has in common it is a hatred for the Cuban government. I think that something Obama said during his campaign spills some light upon the real motives here: "It's time to let Cuban American money make their families less dependent upon the Castro regime." Read between the lines. The capitalists will be the wealthiest people in the country. As much as I would love for America to spread democracy to Cuba, this policy could end up being a disaster down the road once the Castros begin to lose power.

This raises many questions for me that the article doesn't answer.

If the government feels that Cuba is safe enough for Cuban-Americans to travel to (which it has been for years) then why do we still follow the dry-land policy?

How closely will we be monitoring the monetary transactions between countries?

What do we expect (if anything) to get in return from Cuba?

Does the Cuban government even want Cuban-Americans to visit, I know that they love having Americans come and spend money at their beautiful resorts but do they really want an influx of wealthy political detractors coming into their country?

Have we worked out any deals with Cuba regarding extradition and the rights of our citizens when abroad- especially regarding speech and political expression?

And the question that nobody has ever been able to answer: Why is it that I can visit Iraq, Somalia, Venezuela, Argentina, and China but not Cuba? Because of something they did 46 years ago? The idea that if we don't do business with them the people will get mad at Castro and force him out is obviously false.

No... they went on sailing trips to "the Bahamas."

I wonder what the US is going to do once Americans start getting arrested for political reasons over there.

Why do you talk to people on here like they are subservient, eight year old dumbasses?

He did read the article.

You almost choked on your dinner because of something said on an intertronz message board?

You're about as cool as airborne AIDS.



To address the article. Why is this something that is necessary right now? There are much more pressing matters that need to be addressed. When gas goes up again this summer I can assure you CUBA and the need to go there will be the furthest thing on people's minds. This is fucking stupid.

Obama's teleprompter needs to get it's act together.

ok...so do you want to talk about this intelligently...

Actually here is a list of countries that Americans are WARNED not to travel to and some of those same countries are on your list.:

list from the State Department

Now keep in mind that this still doesn't mean that Americans are banned from going to those places moreso that if something happens and we are there, expect little to no assistance... I think you get the idea

As for the revolution issue, who knows, you may be right, you may be wrong, Castro only has but so much longer to live and maybe his brother or whomever steps up afterwards may be a bit more moderate, so why not spike the punch now...OOOOoorrrr there is still that possibility that by opening the doors a little bit Cuba acually may start getting its shit together.

One thing is for sure, I don't the the US will make the same mistake as we did with Iraq and find a busllshit reason to invade them.

The extradition and human rights issue...I would say you have to do your own homeowrk on that one and moreso see if that was one of the conditions that has to be agreed with as far as the Obama admin taking that step.

The money issue now ocme on, you know somebody will be watching!


It's rasing questions? Good, that was in part of why I posted this article. The US has had an ignore the hell out of Cuba stance for nearly 50 years with no signs of changing and maybe now smething can finally happen.