Obama loosens limits on Cuba
Those with tie to island can travel freely, send money; US telecom companies may offer their services
WASHINGTON - President Obama yesterday loosened travel and financial restrictions on ties to Cuba, a policy shift that advocates say signals the beginning of the end of a decades-long, Cold War-era relationship with the communist nation.
In a series of directives that White House officials said would encourage democracy by directly exposing Cubans to American culture, the president lifted longstanding restrictions on Cuban-Americans, allowing them to visit the island whenever they like and send unlimited amounts of cash to relatives there. Under previous Bush administration rules, Cuban-Americans could travel there just once every three years - a rule that was recently eased to once a year - and could send no more than $1,200 to needy relatives.
American telecommunications companies will also be permitted to offer cellphone and satellite television services in Cuba, although the Cuban government's permission may be needed for such activity.
Cubans and Cuban-Americans in Massachusetts reacted with mixed feelings; some eagerly began making plans to travel to the Caribbean island while others said they would never set foot there until President Raul Castro's regime is replaced by a democratic government.
"I have never returned and I'm not going back," said Lazar Lowinger, a lawyer in Newton, who left Cuba in 1954. "I am not giving one cent to Castro."
But others were overjoyed at the opportunity to visit family in Cuba. Jared K. Carter, a Vermont law student whose wife came here from Cuba three years ago, had challenged the previous travel restrictions in federal court.
"It's such a huge relief," said Carter, adding that he and his wife, Yurisleidis Leyva Mora, have been unable to visit her pregnant younger sister and ailing grandparents since she left. "We've been trying to make it as normal a relationship as any sister would. It's definitely been hard."
For decades, foes of the Cuban regime have argued that shutting off money and visits to the country would lead to the downfall of its dictator - first Fidel Castro, and now, Castro's brother, Raul. But the Obama administration argues that engaging more with Cuba will lead to a more informed and empowered populace there.
"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 White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
The policy shift does not undo the Cuba trade embargo, imposed by President Kennedy after the Cuban Missile Crisis and strongly supported by a dwindling but determined group of Cuban exiles and others who believe it is the only way to oust Castro. Only Congress can lift the embargo, which prohibits - with a few exceptions - the export of any goods or technology from the United States to Cuba, either directly or through a third country.
But momentum has been building for years among lawmakers in both parties to ease the trade and travel rules, which critics say have not achieved their intent - forcing Fidel Castro out of power - in the nearly half century they have been imposed.
"What we had was a relic of the Cold War, and the mentality of the Cold war," said US Representative Bill Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat who is among a team of New England lawmakers fighting for more open relations with Cuba. Instead of bringing about change by cutting off Cuba from the world - much of which already trades with the Caribbean nation - "what we find is that we're isolated," Delahunt said.
"It doesn't make any sense. It's a dumb policy," said Representative James McGovern, a Worcester Democrat who is traveling to Cuba on Friday. "I think this will help the cause of human rights" by giving Cubans more access to information from the United States, he said.
Obama's announcement is expected to satisfy Latin American leaders who have been pushing the United States to relax its sanctions against Cuba. The president is set to attend the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, and the policy change means US-Cuban relations are less likely to dominate the meeting.
Obama did not speak publicly yesterday about the issue, leaving it to Gibbs and others to detail the new policy. Obama's move, Gibbs said, does not mean the president is ready to sit down with Castro.
"The president has made clear that he's willing to talk to our adversaries. I think at the same time, the president has said repeatedly that that is not talk for talk's sake," he said.
The restrictions on Cuba have long been a potent political issue, with candidates reluctant to anger anti-Castro Cuban-Amerians in delegate-rich Florida. Some critics chided Obama for his "unilateral" decision and worried that the policy change could lead to a wholesale lifting of the trade embargo.
Representative Connie Mack, Republican of Florida, acknowledged the need to "strengthen the bond of families torn apart" by the Castro regime, but said such an effort should be debated by Congress first. "This dictatorship is one of the most brutal in the world. The US economic embargo must remain in place until tyranny gives way to freedom and democracy," Mack said.
Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican and a Cuban-American, called the decision a "serious mistake."
But in recent years, even the Cuban-American community has softened its position, with younger members more open to some engagement with Cuba, analysts and pollsters said.
"Instead of putting all our resources on sanctions, we should put it on helping the Cuban people," said Francisco Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, an exile group that had taken a hard-line stance against the Cuban dictatorship but recently has advocated an easing of some restrictions. "Change is not coming from the top down. It's got to come from the bottom up," he said.
The Bush administration aggravated many Cuban-Americans when the White House limited the number of visits Cuban-Americans could make to the island. If a Cuban-American wanted to visit his dying mother on the island, for example, he probably could not return to Cuba for the funeral.
Further, Bush redefined "family members" as immediate family only - a decision offensive to some Cuban-Americans who see aunts, uncles, and cousins as close relatives. The new Obama rules expand the definition of family to include second cousins and other extended family members, meaning Cuban-Americans can visit as well as send money and goods to a broader group of relatives.
"What it means for me, somebody with family in Cuba, is if I need to travel on a moment's notice to visit a sick family member, I could go without having to worry that my own government was preventing me from reuniting with my sick family," said Jarrett Barrios, president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation and a former state senator who has traveled to Cuba numerous times on humanitarian missions. "I'm delighted that the Obama administration has returned us to a more common-sense family travel policy on Cuba."
Maria Sacchetti of the Globe staff contributed to this report from Boston. 