Hot off the WaPo:
In advance of Pres. Obama’s trip to the Summit of the Americas (which I talked about in this morning’s podcast),
Obama to Lift Cuba Travel Restrictions
President Obama will announce today that he is lifting travel restrictions that block Cuban Americans from traveling to Cuba and will relax the rules governing what items can be sent to the island, a senior White House official said.
The decision does not lift the trade embargo on communist Cuba but eases the prohibitions that have restricted Cuban Americans from visiting their relatives and has limited what they can send back home.
The Obama administration believes,
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.
That was the motive behind the EU’s lifting restrictions on Cuba last year.
It didn’t work.
Barack Obama dijo en su discurso de apertura que estaría dispuesto extender su mano si los dictadores abren el puño, en el caso de Cuba el puño está cerrado y cada día con más fuerza, eliminar restricciones a la dictadura es premiar la represión; esto será interpretado por los odiadores de los Estados Unidos como un síntoma de debilidad, como un complejo de culpa más del “Imperio”.
Levantar restricciones es una traición más al pueblo de Cuba que no recibirá nada y será mejor reprimido al contar la tiranía con más recursos.