HAVANA, Cuba – UNDER increasing pressure from local lawmakers and international governments to lighten restrictions on the communist nation, US President Barack Obama announced yesterday (Apr. 13) that Cuban-Americans would be allowed to make unlimited trips and money transfers to their families in Cuba.
According to the Associated Press, the previous Bush administration had allowed Cuban-Americans to travel every three years and send up to US$300 to relatives every three months.
“The president would like to see greater freedom for the Cuban people. There are actions that he can and has taken today to open up the flow of information to provide some important steps to help that,” said Presidential Spokesman Robert Gibbs.
The announcement fulfils a promise made by the US President during his election campaign. The estimated 1.5 million Americans who have relatives in Cuba, as well as the international community, have welcomed the move, with political analysts predicting it would usher in “a new era of openness” between the two nations.
However, the 47-year-old trade embargo still remains and officials in Obama’s camp say there are no plans to remove it in the near future. Additionally, the easing of restrictions applies only to Cuban-Americans; other US nationals are still barred from entering the island nation unless they have been granted approval by the State Department.
In a response published in the online Cuban Communist Party’s Granma, former Cuban President Fidel Castro has called for an end to the embargo. He said the US did not go far enough in announcing plans to soften sanctions against his country and insisted that real change in bilateral relations would come only when Washington lifts its “cruel” trade embargo.
“Not a word was said about the blockade, which is the cruellest of measures. The conditions are in place for Obama to use his talent in a constructive policy that ends something that has failed for nearly half a century,” wrote Castro.
At this weekend’s Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, regional and Latin American leaders are expected to push Obama on the embargo issue. However, officials in his administration have said it should not be made the focus of the upcoming talks and that there are more pressing issues for the leaders to tackle.
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