Obama's Cuba Moves Do Little to End the Economic War on Havana

By Jeremy Scahill, Rebel Reports. Posted April 7, 2009.

Over the past several days, Cuba has popped up in U.S. press reports because of speculation that Obama may make some adjustments to Cuba travel policy, as it relates to the Cuban-American community. According to reports in the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets, Obama is considering allowing Cuban-Americans to visit their families on the island nation as often as they wish and to send an unlimited amount of money to relatives living in Cuba, both of which would be departures from Bush-era policies. This comes as little surprise given that Obama pledged bluntly to do so while on the campaign trail (which was hardy a bold move given that it has wide support among Miami Cubans). “I will immediately allow unlimited family travel and remittances to the island,” Obama said in Miami on May 23. “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 dependent upon the Castro regime.”

According to The New York Times, “The White House is expected to announce the action before Mr. Obama travels to Trinidad and Tobago for a meeting on April 17 of Latin American and Caribbean leaders.”

Possible Obama action on Cuba travel comes after Congress approved legislation earlier this years that, in the words of the WSJ, “had the effect of rolling back the Bush rules:”

As they now stand, family members -- broadly defined -- may visit once a year. The rules on how much money family members can send to Cuba, which date to 1978, have also changed with various administrations, but under Mr. Bush, funds were limited to a maximum of $300 per quarter for each household in Cuba receiving them. Remittances from the U.S. to Cuba now amount to around $700 million a year.

While a step in the right direction, Obama’s move to ease some travel resitrictions are being framed with anti-Cuba rhetoric and do not do anything to address the decades-long economic blockade of Cuba. Actual change in U.S.-policy toward Cuba would decriminalize travel to Cuba by any U.S. citizen or resident and allow Cuba to do business and trade freely and openly with whomever it chooses.

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Jeremy Scahill, an independent journalist who reports frequently for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!, has spent extensive time reporting from Iraq and Yugoslavia. He is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. His writing and reporting is available at RebelReports.com.

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