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WORLD> America
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US eases Cuban travel, money restraints
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-14 07:58 This income would facilitate the Cuban government's finance of its "state security apparatus", they wrote. The letter was signed by Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Albio Sires and Robert Andrews of New Jersey. They recommended a more calibrated approach: doubling the amount of allowable money transfers to family members in Cuba rather than allowing unlimited transfers. American policy toward Cuba has been frozen since 1962, when the Kennedy administration broadened a partial trade embargo imposed by the Eisenhower administration the previous year. The original aim was to bring down Fidel Castro's government. Sporadic congressional efforts to end the embargo since then have failed, largely due to the political influence of powerful Cuban exiles, mostly in Florida, who are determined to isolate Cuba, strangle its economy and force Castro out. Castro, now 82, ceded the presidency to his brother last year. Raul Castro, 77, shows no sign of making any fundamental changes. The White House portrayed the lifting of travel restrictions and money transfers to family members in Cuba, coupled with the telecommunications changes, as steps to bridge the gap among divided Cuban families. It had been known for more than a week that the White House would announce the Cuba changes in advance of Obama's attendance this weekend at a Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. Cuba is excluded from that gathering of 34 heads of government, but a number of participants are expected to use the session as an opportunity to press the US to improve relations with Havana. There has been a growing chorus of congressional advocates for change in US policy toward Cuba. In February, Sen. Lugar, R-Ind., issued a report based on a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff visit to Havana that called for a repeal of the family travel and money transfer restrictions. Lugar's report also urged congressional action to remove all US travel restrictions, not just those for Cuban-Americans. Further, it advocated lifting travel restrictions on Cuban diplomats in Washington, who are not allowed to journey outside the capital area. It said this would encourage a reciprocal lifting of Cuban restrictions on US diplomats, improving the US government's ability to understand more fully the conditions that exist on the entire island.
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