President Barack Obama plans to
loosen Cuban travel policy to allow students and church groups to go
to the communist country, the administration announced Friday.
Students seeking academic credit and churches traveling for
religious purposes will be able to go to Cuba. The plan will also
let any American send as much as $500 every three months to Cuban
citizens who are not part of the Castro administration and are not
members of the Communist Party.
Also, more airports will be allowed to offer charter service.
Right now, only three airports - in Miami, Los Angeles and New York
City - can offer authorized charters to Cuba. That will be expanded
to any international airport with proper customs and immigration
facilities as long as licensed travel agencies ask to run charters
from the airport.
On Friday, one Florida airport was already taking steps to offer
service to Cuba.
"This is great news from an international air service
development standpoint," Tampa International Airport CEO Joe Lopano
said in a news release. "We will begin meeting with air charter
companies and working with the Federal Authorities to make sure we
meet all requirements for these Cuba flights."
The White House press office sent out a release saying Obama had
directed the changes, which do not need congressional approval. They
will be put in place within two weeks.
Changes that Obama made last year already increased
Cuban-Americans' ability to visit family and send money to
relatives. The changes are similar to travel policies under
President Bill Clinton. Critics said they will not improve the lives
of Cubans.
"Loosening these 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," said Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the
House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee chair. "These
changes undermine U.S. foreign policy and security objectives and
will bring economic benefits to the Cuban regime."
Sen. Bill Nelson's office earlier confirmed the changes after the
State Department briefed him, but Nelson was traveling and couldn't
be reached for comment on the plans.
Pepe Hernandez, head of the moderate Cuban-American National
Foundation, called the changes very positive, most importantly the
decision to allow all Americans to send money to Cubans.
"It's going to help the interaction between regular Cubans and
U.S. citizens, it's going to help Cuban people inside the island to
gain independence from the Cuban government, especially now that
roughly a million will be without jobs," he said, referring to Raul
Castro's decision to reduce the government workforce.
Hernandez said the Cuban government would get some benefit from
the remittances, but that he could live with that because Cuban
citizens, particularly dissidents, would now have another source of
support.
Archbishop Thomas Wenski, the top Catholic leader in South
Florida, applauded the changes.
"The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops has worked
tirelessly for years with White House representatives promoting
greater contact between people of Cuba and the free world," Wenski
said.
Several Cuban-Americans interviewed in Miami's Little Havana
neighborhood said they had no problems with the changes.
"At the best, it's good for those students to see how bad it
is," said Marta Bergasa, 60, a lab technician who was born in Cuba.
"The problem is the students from there cannot come here."
Others don't think the changes will do any good. Maria Vazquez,
owner of the Sentir Cubano memorabilia shop, said the change would
not do anything to help democracy in Cuba.
"I'm totally against the idea," Vazquez said.
"I think what our country needs is freedom, not these little
patches of students going to Cuba."
