The Obama administration on Friday announced the most wide-ranging liberalization of travel and money-sending regulations to Cuba in over a decade, making it easier for American students and religious and cultural groups to visit the Communist-ruled island.
It will still not be possible for ordinary American tourists to vacation legally in Cuba, which has been under a U.S. economic embargo for 48 years. But members of educational, cultural and religious groups will be able to get licenses for travel more readily. In addition, the new regulations will permit Americans to provide money to Cuban churches and small businesses. Previously, such remittances could be sent only by Cuban Americans to their relatives.
Supporters praised the announcement as a major step forward in promoting greater contact between American and Cuban civil society. The regulations would be similar to those put in place by the administration of President Bill Clinton and rolled back under President George W. Bush.
The measures "open the way for the good will of citizens of both countries to forge deeper ties that are in our national interest today and in the future," Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.
But conservatives and Cuban American legislators were likely to be incensed. The new head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), said in a statement that the looser 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.
The regulations were drawn up by Obama administration officials this past summer in an effort to help Cuban civil society and its nascent private business sector. But officials had held off introducing the regulations, which could have resulted in political fallout around the November elections. In addition, in late 2009 Cuba had detained Alan P. Gross, a U.S. government contractor who had been working on a secretive U.S. democracy-promotion program on the island.
Gross is still in prison in Cuba and has not been charged.
The announcement - late on a Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend - came in the classic Washington fashion for news to which officials would like to draw little attention.
The new rules, which take effect in two weeks, will also allow more U.S. airports to apply for permission to run charter flights to Cuba.
President Obama loosened restrictions on Cuban Americans' visits and remittances to the island in 2009.
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Obama administration lifts some Cuba travel, money-sending restrictions You On Here » Obama administration lifts some Cuba travel, money-sending restrictions
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