Obama is expected to change some measures against Cuba but will mantain the embargo
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- International
- North America
- Society
- United States
- Politics and Government
- 04 / 13 / 2009
The changes will allow unlimited visits to family members on the island as well as unlimited remittances.
The Obama administration will also take steps to enhance the flow of information by allowing U.S. telecommunications networks to link the U.S. and Cuba; and will allow an expansion of humanitarian items that can be sent to the island (including clothing, personal hygiene items and fishing equipment). It will remain illegal to send items to senior government officials and members of the Communist Party.
The announcement is timed to the president’s trip on Thursday and Friday to Mexico City and then Saturday and Sunday to Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas.
Central and South American leaders ranging from Mexican President Felipe Calderon to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez will likely pressure President Obama to also lift the embargo, imposed by President John F. Kennedy six months after President Obama was born.
During the presidential campaign, Obama signaled that these would be moves he would make, while maintaining the embargo.
“I have said that I will immediately allow unlimited family travel and remittances to the island," then-Sen. Obama said in Miami Florida on May 23, 2008. "It’s time to let Cuban Americans see their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers. It’s time to let Cuban American money make their families less depended upon the Castro regime. That is the committeemen that I’m making right here. I will maintaining the embargo. It provides us with the leverage to present the regime with a clear choice, if you take significant steps toward democracy, beginning with the freeing of all political prisoners, we will take steps to begin normalizing relations.”
(ABC)
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