Obama Updates Cuban Travel Policy

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. Read more at AP

From the White House:

Today, President Obama has directed the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Homeland Security to take a series of steps to continue efforts to reach out to the Cuban people in support of their desire to freely determine their country’s future.

The President has directed that changes be made to regulations and policies governing: (1) purposeful travel; (2) non-family remittances; and (3) U.S. airports supporting licensed charter flights to and from Cuba. These measures will increase people-to-people contact; support civil society in Cuba; enhance the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people; and help promote their independence from Cuban authorities.

The President believes these actions, combined with the continuation of the embargo, are important steps in reaching the widely shared goal of a Cuba that respects the basic rights of all its citizens. These steps build upon the President’s April 2009 actions to help reunite divided Cuban families; to facilitate greater telecommunications with the Cuban people; and to increase humanitarian flows to Cuba.

The directed changes described below will be enacted through modifications to existing Cuban Assets Control and Customs and Border Protection regulations and policies and will take effect upon publication of modified regulations in the Federal Register within 2 weeks.

Purposeful Travel. To enhance contact with the Cuban people and support civil society through purposeful travel, including religious, cultural, and educational travel, the President has directed that regulations and policies governing purposeful travel be modified to:

· Allow religious organizations to sponsor religious travel to Cuba under a general license.

· Facilitate educational exchanges by: allowing accredited institutions of higher education to sponsor travel to Cuba for course work for academic credit under a general license; allowing students to participate through academic institutions other than their own; and facilitating instructor support to include support from adjunct and part-time staff.

· Restore specific licensing of educational exchanges not involving academic study pursuant to a degree program under the auspices of an organization that sponsors and organizes people-to-people programs.

· Modify requirements for licensing academic exchanges to require that the proposed course of study be accepted for academic credit toward their undergraduate or graduate degree (rather than regulating the length of the academic exchange in Cuba).

· Allow specifically licensed academic institutions to sponsor or cosponsor academic seminars, conferences, and workshops related to Cuba and allow faculty, staff, and students to attend.

· Allow specific licensing to organize or conduct non-academic clinics and workshops in Cuba for the Cuban people.

· Allow specific licensing for a greater scope of journalistic activities.

Remittances. To help expand the economic independence of the Cuban people and to support a more vibrant Cuban civil society, the President has directed the regulations governing non-family remittances be modified to:

· Restore a general license category for any U.S. person to send remittances (up to $500 per quarter) to non-family members in Cuba to support private economic activity, among other purposes, subject to the limitation that they cannot be provided to senior Cuban government officials or senior members of the Cuban Communist Party.

· Create a general license for remittances to religious institutions in Cuba in support of religious activities.

No change will be made to the general license for family remittances.

U.S. Airports. To better serve those who seek to visit family in Cuba and engage in other licensed purposeful travel, the President has directed that regulations governing the eligibility of U.S. airports to serve as points of embarkation and return for licensed flights to Cuba be modified to:

· Allow all U.S. international airports to apply to provide services to licensed charters, provided such airports have adequate customs and immigration capabilities and a licensed travel service provider has expressed an interest in providing service to and from Cuba from that airport.

The modifications will not change the designation of airports in Cuba that are eligible to send or receive licensed charter flights to and from the United States.

Obama on Cuba at Summit of the Americas - Video

See more video of Obama in Trinidad and Tobago here.

Good evening. I am honored to join you here today, and I want to thank Prime Minister Manning, the people of Trinidad and Tobago for their generosity in hosting the Fifth Summit of the Americas. And I want to extend my greetings to all the heads of state, many of who I am meeting for the first time. All of us are extraordinarily excited to have this opportunity to visit this wonderful country -- and as somebody who grew up on an island, I can tell you I feel right at home. (Applause.)

It's appropriate and important that we hold this summit in the Caribbean. The energy, the dynamism, the diversity of the Caribbean people inspires us all, and are such an important part of what we share in common as a hemisphere.

I think everybody recognizes that we come together at a critical moment for the people of the Americas. Our well-being has been set back by a historic economic crisis. Our safety is endangered by a broad range of threats. But this peril can be eclipsed by the promise of a new prosperity and personal security and the protection of liberty and justice for all the people of our hemisphere. That's the future that we can build together, but only if we move forward with a new sense of partnership.

All of us must now renew the common stake that we have in one another. I know that promises of partnership have gone unfulfilled in the past, and that trust has to be earned over time. While the United States has done much to promote peace and prosperity in the hemisphere, we have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. (Applause.) There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations; there is simply engagement based on mutual respect and common interests and shared values. So I'm here to launch a new chapter of engagement that will be sustained throughout my administration. (Applause.) Read the rest

Obama to Attend Summit of the Americas April 17-19

Update 4-17: See Video of Obama arriving at the Summit and his speech here. 

Joe Biden in Latin America
The fifth Summit of the Americas bring together the thirty-four democratically elected Heads of State and government in Trinidad and Tobago. Some of the talk is expected to be about Cuba. VP Joe Biden paved the way for the summit with his recent trip to Chile and Costa Rica. The summit's mission:

"Guaranteeing our future by promoting human's prosperity, energy safety and sustainable development of the environment."

Yesterday, Obama spoke with Peru's president about the Summit:

President Obama spoke with President Garcia of Peru to express his desire to deepen our bilateral relationship and work together to advance shared goals. The Presidents discussed how to work together to resolve the global financial crisis and restore economic growth for the benefit of all people throughout the hemisphere. President Obama looks forward to working with Peru toward a successful Summit of the Americas that focuses on positive, common agendas. The President also thanked President Garcia for Peru's regional leadership in combating drug trafficking.

And Obama recently spoke with the head of Trinidad and Tobago, where the summit will be held:

President Obama spoke with Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago today to thank him for his efforts in preparing to host the upcoming Fifth Summit of the Americas. The President looks forward to participating in the Summit and discussed with the Prime Minister a shared desire to focus the Summit on addressing the common challenges facing the people of the Americas. The President is committed to building strong and productive partnerships in the hemisphere and

Here's some great information on the summit. Of course, it doesn't come from American press, where it was difficult to find anything about the summit. Much of our media is wrapped up in bows and dogs:

Xinhua: In contrast to his predecessor George W. Bush, U.S. President Barack Obama has kept a low profile on the summit. He has yet to make any comment on whether to restore talks, suspended since 2003,on the setting up of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

Obama also said in mid February, he will neither issue a policy nor make a comment, but will only attend the summit to listen to the opinions and proposals of leaders of Latin American countries.

He hoped that there would be an atmosphere of "dignity, equality and mutual respect" between him and his Latin American counterparts at the summit.

During a visit to Central and South America, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on March 28 in Santiago, capital of Chile, that "the time of the United States dictating unilaterally, the time where we only talk and don't listen is over." He said the United States is expected to cooperate and conduct dialogue with Latin America.

Biden's five-day visit was aimed at paving the way for President Obama to attend the summit.

Talks toward the establishment of FTAA began at the first Summit of the Americas in Miami, United States, in which 34 leaders approved a resolution to start negotiations.

The negotiations were suspended in 2003 when Brazil and Argentina demanded that the agreement provide for the elimination of U.S. agriculture subsidies, the effective access to foreign markets and further consideration toward the needs and sensibilities of its members.

The last summit was held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in November 2005. Prior to the meeting, Bush said talks on FTAA should be re-established.

There is a softening to Washington minus Bush:

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the Bush administration had been preoccupied with the war on terror and paid less attention to the Latin American countries, which caused the estrangement of relations. The relations between the U.S. and Venezuela and Bolivia deteriorated to such an extent that the two countries and the United States expelled each other's ambassadors.

Chavez founded the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas to challenge FTAA, while another organization, the South American Community of Nations, was founded through the promotion of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Few Latin American countries today still show an interest in FTAA.

However, some Latin American leaders have adopted a conciliatory attitude toward the upcoming summit. "We are a democratic and peaceful continent and the United States should look at production and development, not only drug-trafficking and organized crime," Lula said during a visit in Washington in February.

On February 4, Chavez said: "We are willing to achieve rapprochement at any time. We intend to return to the level of relations we had with former President Bill Clinton, which, although they were not easy, were easy-going." Read more

Some background on the Cuban embargo from the Guardian:

President Kennedy imposed an economic and trade embargo on Cuba on 7 February 1962 after Fidel Castro's government expropriated US property on the island. Known by Cubans as el bloqueo, the blockade, elements have been toughened and relaxed under succeeding US presidents. Exceptions have been made for food and medicine exports. George Bush added restrictions on travel and remittances.

The sanctions regime

• No Cuban products or raw materials may enter the US

• US companies and foreign subsidiaries banned from trade with Cuba

• Cuba must pay cash up front when importing US food

• Ships which dock in Cuba may not dock in the US for six months

• US citizens banned from spending money or receiving gifts in Cuba without special permission, in effect a travel ban

• Americans with family on the island limited to one visit every three years.

See a timeline of economic embargo events here. This is a fascinating tidbit:

According to a letter sent by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to the U.S. Congress late last year (and now provided to the Associated Press) the Treasury Department had 4 full-time employees dedicated to investigating Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, and over 2 dozen assigned to investigating Cuban Embargo violations.
The letter reveals that over $8 million were collected in embargo violation fines since 1994, and over 10,683 "enforcement investigations" opened since 1990. Relating to terrorism, the OFAC opened 93 "enforcement investigations" between 1990 and 2003.

And wow:

October 28. For the 13th consecutive year, the UN General Assembly votes overwhelmingly against the U.S. embargo on Cuba. The vote is 179 to 4, with 1 abstention. Voting with the U.S. for the embargo are Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands.

Poll: Most Favor Normal Cuban Relations

CNN: A new poll shows that two-thirds of Americans surveyed think the U.S. should lift its travel ban on Cuba, and three-quarters think the U.S. should end its five-decade estrangement with the country.


Fidel Castro led Cuba's communist revolution in 1959 and recently handed over power to his brother Raul.

According to the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted April 3 to 5, 64 percent of the 1,023 Americans surveyed by telephone thought the U.S. government should allow citizens to travel to Cuba.

And 71 percent of those polled said that the U.S. should reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba, while 27 percent opposed such a move.

Both questions had a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The Obama administration has signaled that new rules on family travel and remittances to Cuba may be announced before President Obama goes to the Summit of the Americas on April 17.

A group of senators and other supporters unveiled a bill March 31 to lift the 47-year-old travel ban to Cuba.

"I think that we finally reached a new watermark here on this issue," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, one of the bill's sponsors. Read the rest.

Cuba Embraces Obama

Ricardo Alarcón, considered a voice of the Cuban government, talks about Obama and the hope of ending the embargo. Many believe that the long-time embargo on travel and trade with Cuba should be lifted.

The omnibus budget, better known as the pork budget (the bulk of which was actually pork free), that Obama signed, eases U.S. travel to Cuba:

CNN: The $410 billion budget President Obama signed Wednesday will make it easier for U.S. residents to travel to Cuba and to send money to family members on the island. It also could facilitate the sale of agricultural and pharmaceutical products to Cuba.

The residents of Havana, Cuba, often rely on bicycle taxis for transportation.

Three provisions attached to the omnibus spending bill loosened restrictions enacted by then-President George W. Bush after he came to office in 2001.

Analysts see the move as a way for the new Obama administration to start thawing relations with Cuba one month before the Fifth Summit of the Americas brings together the U.S. president and 33 other leaders from the Western Hemisphere in Trinidad and Tobago.

"[Cuba] is the issue of greatest symbolic importance," said Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy institute. "It will be seen as a test of real U.S. readiness to change in the hemisphere. What he says about Cuba will make headlines."

Hakim testified about Latin American policy Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Cuban students love American pop culture and are hopeful that Obama will better relations between Cuba and the U.S.:

Obama Vows Change On Cuba Policy

MSNBC: Now they have a problem: If Barack Obama follows through on campaign promises to ease restrictions on the island, he could chip away at the Castro brothers' best case for staying in power.

And if a new Democrat-dominated Congress takes Obama's moves even further, Cuban leaders may have a hard time maintaining their tight control over Cuban society.
"They'd have to throw out the whole script about American imperialism," said Phil Peters of the Lexington Institute, a Washington-area think tank.

Top Cuban ideologues are already worried.

"We have before us the immense challenge of how to face a new chapter in the cultural struggle against the enemy," Armando Hart, 78-year-old patriarch of Cuban communists, warned last week in Granma, the party newspaper.

If Cuban-Americans are allowed to visit more frequently and send more money to the island, it could spark "a new chapter in the ideological war between the Cuban revolution and imperialism," Hart wrote.
....
The U.S. government's Cuba policy has been frozen in time since 1962, when it imposed the embargo with the aim of bringing down Fidel Castro's government at a time when U.S.-backed exiles mounted the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and Soviet missiles in Cuba pushed the world close to nuclear war.

Sporadic congressional efforts to end the embargo since then have failed, largely due to the political influence of powerful Cuban exiles who insisted on isolating Cuba and trying to strangle its economy to force Castro out.

But Castro, now 82, remained in power until he ceded the presidency to his brother in February due to illness. And Raul Castro, 77, shows no sign of making any fundamental changes.

The embargo is "a policy that hasn't worked in nearly 50 years," said Wayne Smith, a former top U.S. diplomat to Havana and a Cuba fellow at John Hopkins' Center for International Policy. "It's stupid, it's counterproductive and there is no international support for it."

Obama has promised to lift limits that President George W. Bush tightened on Cuban-Americans wanting to visit and send money to relatives. He also says he's open to a dialogue with Raul Castro — something the Cuban president has indicated he would welcome.