Monday, April 13, 2009

Cuban Americans Can Now Visit Aunts in Cuba

In 2004, Bush tightened travel rules to Cuba, allowing people to visit family (except aunts, uncles and cousins) once every three years.
The decision does not lift the decades-old trade embargo with Cuba, but it does fulfill an Obama campaign promise to ease restrictions that have prevented Cuban-Americans from visiting their relatives. As a candidate and as president, Obama has said that he believes greater openness with Cuba will hasten democratic change in the communist island nation.

"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," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

But Gibbs said that the Castro regime must do more. "There are some steps that the Cuban government can and must take," he said. Read more at NPR
Read the White House fact sheet here.
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