The administration of US President Barack Obama on Friday eased restrictions on Americans’ travel to Cuba in an effort to encourage more contact between people in both countries, while leaving intact the decades-old embargo against the island’s communist government.
White House officials said they were lifting travel restrictions imposed by former US president George W. Bush and expanding the so-called people-to-people provisions created under former US president Bill Clinton. The changes provide broad opportunities for travel to Cuba by academic, religious and cultural groups and allow charter flights from more US airports.
The new measures also permit Americans to send money to Cuban citizens — except for members of the Castro government and the Communist Party — and to religious organizations to support “private economic activity.”
The administration had been expected to announce these measures months ago, but congressional and administration officials said they were delayed because of White House concerns about their possible impact on last year’s midterm elections.
There were also worries about the effect the move could have on the detention of a contractor for the US Agency for International Development who was arrested in Cuba more than a year ago after he was discovered distributing satellite communication equipment to religious groups. US Department of State officials visited the contractor, Alan Gross, in Havana this week.
The Associated Press reported on Friday that the state department was “cautiously optimistic” that Gross, 60, who has had health problems, would be tried and then allowed to return to the US.
Still, that the White House announced the new measures late on a Friday afternoon when most Republican members of US Congress were away on retreat and Democrats had left their offices for the long holiday weekend, indicated that the administration hoped to enact the changes with as little fanfare — and backlash — as possible.
The White House announcement also comes as the Cuban government is carrying out a sweeping economic overhaul, including layoffs of hundreds of thousands of state workers. Sarah Stephens, executive director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, said the increased flow of money from US citizens would help Cubans cope with the changes.
Asked whether the administration was concerned that the measure might inadvertently strengthen the Cuban government by providing its economy with a new source of hard currency, a senior -administration official said, “What we know is that it will put money into the hands of the Cuban people and allow them to have more independence from the Cuban state.”
Still, a handful of supporters and opponents of the measures took time to make their feelings known.
“Loosening these regulations will not help foster a pro-democracy environment in Cuba,” said US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the new chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
US Senator John Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded the measures as, “an important step,” saying that they “open the way for the good will of citizens of both countries to forge deeper ties that are in our national interest today and in the future.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of