Foggy Bottom

Obama Lifts Some Restrictions on Cuba



A man rides his bicycle along the Malecon in Havana on April 9, 2009. (Javier Galeano/Associated Press)



Updated 5:55 p.m.

By Michael D. Shear

President Obama is lifting some restrictions on Cuban Americans' contact with Cuba and allowing U.S. telecom companies to operate there, opening up the communist island nation to more cellular and satellite service, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced at his regular news briefing today.

The decision does not lift the trade embargo on Cuba but eases the prohibitions that have restricted Cuban Americans from visiting their relatives and has limited what they can send back home.

It also allows companies to establish fiber-optic and satellite links between the United States and Cuba and will permit U.S. companies to be licensed for roaming agreements in Cuba.

Communications of those kinds have been prohibited under tough rules put in place by George W. Bush's administration to pressure for democratic change in the island nation.

But under the new policy promoted by Obama, satellite radio companies and television providers will also be able to enter into transactions necessary to provide service to Cuban citizens.

It will also provide an exception to the trade embargo to allow personal cell phones, computes and satellite receivers to be sent to Cuba.

"All who embrace core democratic values long for a Cuba that respects the basic human, political and economic rights of all of its citizens," Gibbs said. "President Obama believes the measure he has taken today, will help make that goal a reality."

As a candidate, Obama promised to seek closer relations with Cuba, and courted Cuban voters in the key state of Florida. As president, he has signaled that he intends to move toward a greater openness.

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, praised the move. "President Obama has made the right call. . . ," he said in a statement this afternoon. "These changes are both compassionate and responsive to reality."

A White House aide said the president believes that democratic change will come to the Cuban nation more quickly if the United States reaches out to the people of Cuba and their relatives in the United States.

But the move is highly controversial, especially among those who supported Bush's hardline policy and view the restrictions as a way of spurring political change.

The news drew quick criticism from Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and his brother, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), who called it a "serious mistake." In a statement posted online, they said, "Unilateral concessions to the dictatorship embolden it to further isolate, imprison and brutalize pro-democracy activists, to continue to dictate which Cubans and Cuban-Americans are able to enter the island, and this unilateral concession provides the dictatorship with critical financial support."

Obama's administration takes a somewhat different view than the Bush administration, but has resisted a wholesale elimination of the trade embargo and travel ban, which has been pushed for by some in Congress.

The announcement comes as the president prepares to leave Thursday for the Summit of the America's in Trinidad, and a stop in Mexico.

Posted at 12:16 PM ET on Apr 13, 2009 | Category: Foggy Bottom

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