STORM2K

Breaking just now this news in a press conference by Robert Gibbs,White House Press Secretary. This is big news for those who have family members in Cuba.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is allowing Americans to make unlimited trips and money transfers to family in Cuba and easing other restrictions Monday to usher in a new era of openness toward the island nation ruled by communists for 50 years.

The formal announcement was being made at the White House Monday afternoon, during presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs' daily briefing with reporters, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity before the announcement.

With the changes, Obama aims to lessen Cubans' dependence on the Castro regime, hoping that will lead them to demand progress on political freedoms, the official said. About 1.5 million Americans have relatives on the island nation that turned to communist rule in 1959 when Fidel Castro seized control.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090413/ap_ ... wh/us_cuba

Nothing less was expected from Obama's administration. A new era begins.

If your an American of non-Cuban descent, travel restrictions remain in place. So as I read this.....A Cuban in America can visit Cuba, but any other American still cannot visit Cuba. I think it's a rotten deal.

I agree Dionne on the fact that Americans still can't travel, but I'm happy that we can now visit our relatives in the island when we want or in the case of an emergency, when it's needed. Before it was only once every three years and that was all.

Americans of Cuban descent, fairly affluent by Cuban standards, visiting with tales of freedom of speech, freedom to criticize the government, maybe not what Los Hermanos Castro really want...

Dionne wrote:If your an American of non-Cuban descent, travel restrictions remain in place. So as I read this.....A Cuban in America can visit Cuba, but any other American still cannot visit Cuba. I think it's a rotten deal.

Well, at least it's a start. And at The 5th Summit of The Americas, scheduled to take place later this week in Trinidad & Tobago, leaders of this region are planning to implore (dare I say "demand"?) President Obama to lift all restrictions against Cuba.

I wonder if this means I can get birth and death records now of my great grandparents?

If Los Hermanos Castro allow Cubans living in America to travel at will to the island and back, then do they still qualify as political refugees, entitled to automatic permission to stay for being able to reach the US?


Other Latinos are considered economic refugees, and thus aren't legal residents just by virtue of reaching the US.

Well, 50 years of the embargo hasn't changed anything. Maybe it is time to try a new strategy. I know some Canadians that love to visit Cuba and spend time in the "nice" hotels.