Previous chief of the United States mission in Cuba, John Caulfield, thinks that the changes will enhance Americans’ experience in Cuba. They allow Cuban citizens to earn salaries from US companies and to have American bank accounts for limited purposes, as well as permit the use of USA dollars in financial transactions with Cuba.
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President Barack Obama plans to lay out his vision for US-Cuba relations in a major speech during next week’s historic visit to Havana aimed at making his opening to America’s former Cold War foe “irreversible”, the White House said on Wednesday.
Accompanied by First Lady Michelle Obama and their two daughters, as well as the President’s mother-in-law, Obama will arrive in Havana Sunday afternoon, March 20.
But a look at the updated restrictions shows that it’ll still be hard for the average American to legally visit Cuba for vacation, at least for those inclined to tell the truth.
The Obama administration punched a new series of holes in the USA trade embargo on Cuba on Tuesday, removing the last meaningful restrictions on travel and enacting other changes to expand US commerce with the island. Major League Baseball officials hope Cuban players could play for Major League Baseball teams without having to give up their Cuban citizenship, as they do now.
-Hiring – U.S. companies can hire Cuban nationals, in a non-immigrant status, to work or perform in the United States provided that no additional payments are made to the Cuban government related to their sponsorship or hiring.
The Obama administration insists that engagement will benefit the Cuban people and open up the island to United States business – though Cuban leaders have been slow to make economic reforms. For the first time in more than 50 years, US mail will travel directly to Cuba today.
The various steps announced by the Treasury add up to the continuing erosion of Congress-mandated restrictions on interactions with Cuba and Cubans as the Obama administration seeks to end the decades-old embargo on the country.
“We have enormous confidence in the American people as ambassadors for the things that we care about”, said Rhodes.
Obama will also hold a town hall meeting before a state dinner.
The updated rules will “remove the requirement that people-to-people educational travel be conducted under the auspices of an organization that sponsors such exchanges”, according to the Federal Register.
“The president has negotiated a deal with the Castros, and I understand his desire to make this his legacy issue”, Sen.
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“These unilateral actions will further prop up a communist regime in Cuba that has a long record of brutal human rights abuses”, said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif. His much-anticipated meeting with Cuban dissidents will include prominent members of the government’s opposition, Rhodes said, stressing that the US and not Cuba was deciding who would attend. But Obama has claimed near-limitless leverage to implement the embargo in a way that essentially renders it void.
