A Hot Button Issue: Obama Lifts Some Travel Restrictions To Cuba!

Our new president has made a major shift in U.S policy towards Cuba.He has lifted some travel restrictions that have been in place since the 60's.President Obama will let Cuban-Americans travel to Cuba more frequently to visit family.They will also be able to send money to their loved ones in Cuba as well.There are some Cubans & Americans who have been urging President Obama to lift the embargo against Cuba entirely.Here's more on that from CNN:

"Growing up in America, Joshu Harris was captivated by the mystique, music and history of Cuba.

So before Harris started law school, he traveled to Santiago in southeastern Cuba -- something very few Americans can do today. While there, he played his trumpet with a local dance band, touring across the Cuban countryside.

"I wanted to see and experience the country for myself," says Harris, who is now an attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Harris visited Cuba in 2004 under the promise that he would stay with a Cuban friend and host. Such travel was legal at the time -- before former President George W. Bush imposed more stringent travel restrictions later that year.

Many travelers and travel industry professionals hope the Obama administration will soon loosen Cuba travel rules. During the campaign for the White House, President Obama promised to lift travel restrictions on Cuban Americans trying to visit family.

Under Bush's policy, Cuban Americans had to wait three years between visits to relatives in Cuba. The policy also complicated travel for Americans with no ties to the island.

"My daughter still hasn't met her grandmother," said Leigh Salvage, a 38-year-old teacher in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Salvage, who is not Cuban, hopes to accompany her Cuban boyfriend and their 2-year-old daughter soon to visit his relatives in Cuba. She volunteered for the Obama campaign last year, telling people about the effect of the travel restrictions on her family.

"We have roots there, and we should be able to go without so much trouble," she said.

In 2007, about 45,200 Americans -- including Cuban Americans -- legally obtained a license or approval from the U.S. government to enter Cuba by air, a dramatic drop from nearly 84,500 travelers in 2003, according to reports from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Travel and Tourism Industries.

Easing travel restrictions for Cuban Americans alone isn't enough for many in the travel industry. The American Society of Travel Agents, the nation's largest group of travel professionals and companies, would like all Americans to be allowed to visit the island.

The group formally requested the Obama administration lift all travel restrictions.

American travel to Cuba remains tightly controlled and highly bureaucratic for most Americans since the U.S. imposed a trade embargo on the country in the 1960s. Many American critics say opening U.S. travel to Cuba would be supporting an oppressive, totalitarian government."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Here's more on the travel restrictions that have been lifted from the NY Times:

"If the Obama administration is reaching out to the Cuban people, it is not reaching out to its leader, Fidel Castro, with whom the United States has been estranged in the half-century that he has been in power.

Mr. Gibbs repeated what Mr. Obama said during the campaign: “There are no better ambassadors for freedom than Cuban-Americans.”

Under the new policy, Cuban Americans will now be allowed to travel freely to the island and send as much money as they want to their family members — so long as the money is not going to senior officials of the Cuban government or the Communist Party.

Second, the administration will take steps to open up communications to the island by allowing telecommunications companies to engage in licensing agreements that will support cell phones, satellite televisions and computers there.

Third, the president will reverse restrictions on gift packages imposed by his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, in 2004. The new rules will permit Cuban Americans to send clothing, personal hygiene items and fishing equipment to family members on the island — again, so long as the recipients are not government or Communist Party officials."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the article in its entirety here.