In an effort designed to promote "democracy and human rights" in Cuba, the White House April 13 lifted a number of restrictions imposed on travel and trade with the island nation imposed by the Bush administration.
According to a memorandum signed by President Obama, the new travel and trade rules are meant to facilitate "greater contact between separated family members in the United States and Cuba and increasing the flow of remittances and information to the Cuban people."
The new rules on travel apply strictly to Cuban Americans. Limitations on the number and frequency of visits to Cuba by Cuban American family members imposed by the Bush administration in 2003 are to be lifted.
In addition, harsh restrictions on the remittance of money by Cuban Americans to family members in Cuba imposed at the same time by the Bush administration were ordered lifted in the president's memorandum. Restrictions on the amount and frequency of such remittances will also be removed. Cuban Americans traveling to Cuba will also be able to carry as much as $3,000 in cash to family members.
The Obama administration also authorized US-based telecommunications, satellite TV and satellite radio companies to open business with Cuba. Contracts for cell phone service providers will be allowed.
Notably, these new rules for telecommunications targeted "senior members of the Communist Party of Cuba" for exclusion.
The new rules also expand the number of items that can be licensed for donation to Cuba for humanitarian purposes.
In a statement for the press, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "In taking these steps to help bridge the gap among divided Cuban families and to promote the increased flow of information and humanitarian items to the Cuban people, President Obama is working to fulfill the goals he identified both during his presidential campaign and since taking office."
The memorandum came ahead of US participation in this week's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and is widely regarded as among several steps the Obama administration must make in order to improve diplomatic relations with Latin American countries. Bush administration disengagement, isolationism and excessively harsh rhetoric caused damaged relations with countries that had long been friendly to the US.
In an e-mail to their supporters, Latin America Working Group praised the lifting of the Bush-era restrictions on travel to Cuba but added, "We continue working toward our goal of putting an end to the travel ban, and each day more and more people join us in asking for 'travel for all.'"
Human rights advocates noted that international agreements, such as the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which the US is a signatory, expressly label the freedom of movement and travel as a basic human right.
In a recent video interview for the Latin America Working group, Silvia Wilhelm, founder and executive director of the non-profit NGO Puentes Cubanos, pleaded for expanding the rights of all people to freely travel to Cuba.
"The policies of war and isolation are the past," Wilhelm said, "and the policies of engagement and reconciliation are the present and the future."
