White House Tweaks Cuba Travel Policy

The Obama administration announced a new set of changes to Cuba travel policy on January 14, taking a small step toward improving the bedeviled bilateral relationship. The changes will make it easier for religious groups and universities to sponsor travel to Cuba. The new policy also permits any American to send up to $500 in remittances to Cuba every quarter and allows all airports to apply to serve licensed charter flights to the island. But the new steps will not fundamentally alter U.S.-Cuban relations and further changes could come slowly, given the power shift in U.S. Congress.

The White House spokesperson who delivered the news said the Obama administration had not held off on announcing the changes for political reasons, but the timing seemed strategic. Loosening Cuba policy prior to the midterm elections in November could have damaged Democratic candidates' standings among Cuban-American voters in southern Florida. Delivering the announcement on a Friday afternoon pushed the blowback into the weekend news cycle, where fewer readers would see it.

That did not stop prominent Cuban-American legislators from registering their opinions. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) said in a statement that “loosening these regulations will not help foster a pro-democracy environment in Cuba.” Before administration officials announced the changes, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) gave an interview in Spanish to Radio Mambí condemning the Castro government. “I was against the original changes that the administration made, and now they’re talking about additional changes,” Rubio said, referring to Obama’s loosening of restrictions on travel for Cuban Americans in 2009. “What needs to change here is the government of Cuba.” Rubio reiterated the message in a press release posted to his official website on Friday. 

Ros-Lehtinen and Rubio were not the only ones to criticize the changes. Cuba’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement, reprinted by state media, saying that the changes represented a positive step, but fell far short of the Cuban goals of rescinding the U.S. trade embargo and the U.S. government’s commitment to regime change—a policy articulated by Congress in the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992.
 
If the timing of the announcement had the effect of skirting opposition from Cuban-American lawmakers, it coincided with the first positive turn in the case of detained U.S. contractor Alan Gross, who has been jailed in Cuba for over a year under vague accusations of spying, but faced no formal charges. The travel changes came just two days after a meeting between U.S. and Cuban diplomatic officials in Havana to discuss migration. U.S. diplomat Roberta Jackson met with Gross in jail during her visit to Cuba. Following the meeting, Reuters cited a State Department source who refused to be identified as saying he or she was “cautiously optimistic” that Gross might be tried, sentenced to time served, and sent home in the near future.

The announcement also comes just as Raúl Castro’s government has begun enacting sweeping reforms to loosen the state’s stranglehold on the island’s economy. In April, a Communist Party Congress will discuss how to implement the proposed changes, which were announced in November and range from doing away with the dual currency system to encouraging entrepreneurship and foreign investment. Cuba has also taken steps in the area of human rights by releasing 41 dissidents into Spanish exile. Human rights organizations have criticized the Cuban government’s imposition of Spanish exile as a condition of release, as well as a continued pattern of arbitrary arrests that seem to be politically motivated—but it is also appears that the number of prisoners of conscience in Cuban prisons has reached a historic low.

This may be the end of the line for major changes to Cuba policy in the near future, however. Obama issued the order, much like he made modifications shortly after taking office that allowed Cuban Americans to travel freely to the island to visit family. The 2009 changes also eased regulations on telecommunications companies, authorizing them to engage in contracts with the Cuban government to provide satellite and internet linkages with the United States, among other changes. A 2009 report by the Cuban Study Group in collaboration with AS/COA found that the executive order did not provide enough clarity about existing regulations to promote U.S. companies to invest in ventures with the Cuban government. It appears that broader changes to U.S. policy toward Cuba require congressional action—unlikely with anti-Castro Representative Ros-Lehtinen at the helm of the House Foreign Relations Committee.

Learn More

• The Jan. 14 White House statement announcing changes to restrictions on Cuba travel.
• The April 2009 White House statement announcing the end to restrictions for Cuban Americans traveling to visit family.
• President Obama’s “New Partnership for the Americas” policy statement.
• Announcement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry regarding the White House’s changes to Cuba travel policy.
• Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s press release.
• Senator Marco Rubio’s press release.
• Marco Rubio’s interview with Radio Mambí.
• English translation of the Cuban Foreign Ministery’s announcement by Cuban Colada.
• The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992.
• Cuba’s “Guidelines to Social and Economic Policy.”