By Mark Silva and Tracy Wilkinson | Tribune Newspapers
April 14, 2009
WASHINGTON
In a significant departure from past U.S. policy, the Obama
administration announced Monday that it will permit unlimited travel to
Cuba by Cuban-Americans and allow them to transfer money to relatives on
the Caribbean island while keeping in place many long-standing U.S.
trade restrictions.
Obama's moves make good on a campaign promise and take advantage of
possible openings in Havana as Raul Castro, who took over a year ago
from his ailing brother, Fidel, adopts limited reforms on the island,
which has been ruled by the Castros for half a century.
The new policy also serves to blunt pressure Obama was likely to face at
this week's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. There, Latin
American leaders, who unanimously favor improved relations with the
Communist government, are expected to make the case that the U.S. should
seek ways to ease its long-standing animosity with the regime.
Momentum has been building for change in U.S. policies toward Cuba.
Still, Obama's decision falls short of what many critics, in the U.S.
and abroad, had been demanding. A bill introduced last month in Congress
would lift the travel ban on all Americans, not just Cuban-Americans
visiting family.
Related links
*
Cuba rules eased: What do you think?
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that the State,
Treasury and Commerce Departments will lift all restrictions on the
visits of family members to Cuba and remittances of money as a way to
"help bridge the gap between divided Cuban families." The goal, Gibbs
said, is to promote greater freedom and human rights in the nation run
by the Castros for half a century.
The measures will allow "families to visit families [and] allow families
to send back some of their hard-earned money" to Cuba, Gibbs said,
suggesting that the president views closer relations among families as
the key to a freer Cuba.
Aides to Obama said relaxing the rules also represented an effort by the
administration to aid Cubans in their pursuit of political freedoms by
making them less dependent on Castro's government, while continuing to
hold it to account through the embargo.
In addition to easing travel and remittances restrictions, the new rules
expand the list of gifts Cuban Americans can send to their families in
Cuba and allow U.S. telecommunications companies to do business in Cuba.
The Bush administration tightened restrictions on Cuban travel, limiting
passage to the island to two weeks every three years and limiting that
to immediate family members. Under former President Bill Clinton,
Cuban-Americans could visit their relatives once a year. Former
President George W. Bush had also restricted remittances to the sender's
immediate family, with a cap of $300.
About 1.5 million Americans have relatives in Cuba.
Obama had promised to ease travel restrictions in his campaign for the
White House, and the Democrat garnered an unusually high share of the
Cuban-American vote in Miami.
Underscoring the changing politics of Florida's Cuban-American
community, the announcement Monday drew support even from the state's
Republican senator -- himself a Cuban-American immigrant and former
national GOP chairman who has backed tough anti-Castro policies.
In a statement released from his office, Mel Martinez called the new
policy "good news for Cuban families separated by the lack of freedom in
Cuba."
Still, Obama came under fire from some conservatives, who accused him of
ceding too much ground to the Castro brothers. Republican U.S. Reps.
Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, brothers who each represent largely
Cuban-American districts in the Miami area, issued a joint statement
charging that Obama was committing a serious mistake by unilaterally
increasing Cuban-American travel and remittance dollars.
Travel by Americans who do not have family in Cuba remains prohibited
but there are several exemptions including for journalists, academics
and people on humanitarian missions. Others have long found ways around
the prohibition, often entering Cuba through Mexico or Canada.
Nowhere has the call for normalizing relations with Cuba been stronger
than in Latin America, where Obama is venturing later this week for the
first time in his presidency. After a stop in Mexico on Thursday, he is
due to travel to Trinidad for a meeting of 34 of the hemisphere's heads
of state. Cuba was not invited.
Among Latin American leaders, policy on Cuba has become something a
litmus test to measure the U.S. president's commitment to improving
tattered relations with the region. However, the Obama administration
has been keen to prevent Cuba from dominating the summit agenda.
Jeffrey Davidow, the White House special advisor on the summit, said the
U.S. government will continue to stress human rights and democracy as
factors influencing relations with Cuba. "The fact is, in today's
hemisphere, Cuba is the odd man out," Davidow said last week.
Using, perhaps, a different measuring stick, Josefina Vidal, head of the
North American section of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, suggested it was
in fact the U.S. that is now the odd man out. Shortly after Fidel Castro
took power, Washington broke relations with Havana and persuaded most of
the hemisphere to follow suit. Every country has since reversed itself,
except the United States.
"The U.S. is the one standing alone," Vidal said in a recent interview
in Havana. "The policy of isolation has been defeated."
In an unusual show of unity, a parade of Latin heads of state has paid
calls on Cuban President Raul Castro in recent months, consistently
calling for, at the least, rapprochement, and at the most, an end to the
decades-old U.S. trade embargo.
Obama has indicated he wants to use the summit to launch a new era of
goodwill in Latin America, following years of what many saw as neglect
or hostility under the Bush administration. To succeed in that, he would
have to show himself more receptive to Cuba, analysts and diplomats say.
"It's going to be very difficult for Obama to say he is turning a page
in U.S.-Latin American relations if he also clings to a 47-year-old
policy widely disliked throughout Latin America," Daniel Erikson, senior
associate with the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, said last week.
Whether the measures announced Monday are enough remains to be seen.
Several U.S. lawmakers, especially from farm states, are also pushing
for trade restrictions to be eased. Obama is maintaining them, however,
saying they can serve as leverage for the U.S. to use to pressure Cuba
to free political prisoners and enact democratic reforms.
An embargo against Cuba was formalized by the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act
and the 1996 Helms-Burton law, which together bar virtually all trade
with Cuba and provide penalties for companies or their subsidiaries that
do so. However, under a separate 2000 law, Congress allowed Cuba to
purchase U.S. agricultural products on a cash-only basis.
Since then, Cuba has bought more than $2.5 billion in American
agricultural and food products, including more than $1 billion in 2007
and 2008, according to the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic
Council, which advocates trade between the two countries.
As a result, experts estimate Cuba imports more food products from the
United States than anywhere else. Under the 1992 law, U.S. firms may
export healthcare products.
The Cuban government says it is ready to talk to Washington, but will
not accept preconditions.
The new rules broaden what can be shipped to Cuba as gifts but it
remains illegal to send money to senior government officials and
Communist Party members.
Under the rules, the Obama administration will also start issuing
licenses to allow companies to provide cell and television services to
Cubans and allow relatives in the U.S. to pay for those services for
their families on the island.
The Washington Bureau's Silva reported from Washington. The Los Angeles
Times' Wilkinson reported from Mexico City. The Washington Bureau's
Peter Wallsten also contributed to this report.
Obama lifts restrictions on Cuban-Americans visiting the island --
chicagotribune.com (11 May 2009)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-cuba-travel-tues_webapr14,0,1066350,full.story
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario