Miami Herald: Calling it ”extending a hand to the Cuban people,” the Obama administration on Monday announced it is lifting travel and gift restrictions for Cuban Americans, allowing them to travel freely to the island and send additional financial help to family members.
”This is a reaching out to the Cuban people,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, who made the announcement along with special assistant to the president, Dan Restrepo, who spoke in Spanish.
President Barack Obama did not take part in the press conference.”These much needed changes will benefit the people; this policy extends a hand to the Cuban people,” Restrepo said.He added the move means the U.S. government is ”getting out of regulating the relationship of Cuban families,” Restrepo said.
The policy change — which includes pushing for more cell phone and satellite service for Cubans on the island — marks the most significant U.S. gesture to Cuba in decades and comes amid efforts in Congress to lift all travel restrictions to the island. The administration is hoping to hasten change on the island by increasing contact among Cuban Americans in the U.S. and on the island, the White House said.
”This is an effort to reach out to the Cuban people in an effort to support the Cuban people’s desire to freely determine their country’s future,” a senior administration official told The Miami Herald. “The president has said this is the most direct means to open up the kind of space that is necessary to see democratic change in Cuba.”
The changes include unlimited family visits and remittances, allowing U.S. companies to seek contracts for communication services in Cuba and an expansion of humanitarian items that can be sent, the official said.
Currently, Cuban Americans can visit family members once a year.
The White House will direct the State, Commerce and Treasury departments to write the rule changes to carry out the policy. It’s not known when the new policy would take effect.
