By Wayne Smith. CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY. In his new International Policy Brief (PDF), Wayne S. Smith, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and director of the Cuba Project, discusses the Diaz-Balart amendment that the U.S. House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee passed on June 23. According to Smith, this amendment takes a step backwards in U.S.-Cuban relations, and therefore, Congress should reject it.">By Wayne Smith. CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY. In his new International Policy Brief (PDF), Wayne S. Smith, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and director of the Cuba Project, discusses the Diaz-Balart amendment that the U.S. House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee passed on June 23. According to Smith, this amendment takes a step backwards in U.S.-Cuban relations, and therefore, Congress should reject it.">

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New International Policy Brief

By Wayne Smith. CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY. In his new International Policy Brief (PDF), Wayne S. Smith, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and director of the Cuba Project, discusses the Diaz-Balart amendment that the U.S. House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee passed on June 23. According to Smith, this amendment takes a step backwards in U.S.-Cuban relations, and therefore, Congress should reject it.

Excerpt is below.

An Amendment that Must Not Pass. June 2011. If Representative Mario Diaz-Balart has his way, Cuban Americans will no longer be able to freely visit their families on the island or to send them remittances. Rather, according to the amendment he put forward on June 23, they would again suffer under the kind of restrictions imposed by the administration of George W. Bush in 2004 -- visits only every three years to a restricted list of family members.

Very painful. These rules were eliminated by President Obama in April of 2009. Since then, Cuban Americans have been allowed to visit families as often as they wished and to send remittances.

But, Diaz-Balart has suggested that the Cuban American community, indeed, as many as 90% of them support his amendment, i.e., they are opposed to the freer family travel made possible by Obama and again want it restricted...

To read the full brief download the PDF here (two pages) at http://ciponline.org/Cuba/IPB%20062811.pdf

Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/124644

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