• Submitted by: manso
• United States
• Politics and Government
• 08 / 09 / 2010

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Obama administration likely to loosen restrictions soon

1:10 A.M. — The potential loosening of restrictions on U.S. travel to Cuba has prompted mixed reactions from some local Cubans.

Jackie Figueroa, an anchor for the program Accion Hispana on WUVF Univision,said she's against a change in policy. "Nothing good is going to come out of it," Figueroa said.

"They want our money; they want people to go there," said Figueroa, who lives in Cape Coral and left Cuba with her parents more than 20 years ago when she was 16.

Miguel Fernandez, a Fort Myers lawyer running for Lee County judge who emigrated from Cuba to the U. S. as a child, said he's in favor of more travel to Cuba if it's for the right reasons and if the citizens are the ones benefiting - not the government.

Sources close to the Obama administration told El Nuevo Herald on Friday the decision to ease travel restrictions will be announced within two weeks.

The key change will be an expansion of educational and cultural travel, which accounted for about 2,000 visits in 2009, according to the Herald report. These visits were drastically trimmed by the George W. Bush administration.

The Herald report said Obama also will restore the broader "people-to-people" category of travel, which allows "purposeful" visits to increase contacts between U.S. and Cuban citizens.

Fernandez, who left Cuba with his parents in 1968 when he was 5, has been on three mission trips to the country with Cape Coral-based Grace United Methodist Church.

He said travel has been getting tougher in recent years, with fewer church members allowed to go. They have been waiting three years to go back.

By Thomas stewart
August 9, 2010

Source:http://www.news-press.com/a