Peter Horton, director of airports for Monroe County where Key West is located, told Reuters the October 5 authorization email he received from U.S. Customs and Border Protection did spell out some restrictions for Cuba flights however.

“It does not open up flights for the average American and it limits arriving passengers to 10 per flight. But it’s the first step and it’s an important one,” Horton said.

Allowing religious organizations and certain educational institutions to travel to the country, increasing the amount that non-relatives can send to Cuba, and opening all U.S. airports to licensed chartered flights from the communist nation.

The White House announced the new measures late Friday night, likely anticipating the mixed reaction among some Democrats and Republicans to any move seen as inching toward rapprochement with the communist regime. They had been in the works for months, but political concerns – such as November’s midterm elections – held up the announcement.

Airports Can Offer Direct Flights

One key policy change is that airports will now be allowed to offer flights to Cuba with some restrictions. According to the Tampa Bay Business Journal:

Airports seeking to offer direct air travel to Cuba will have to have the right infrastructure and will have to have a charter company lined up to provide the flights as part of President Obama’s new Cuban policy.

Specific regulations will be laid out in two to three weeks, the White House official said.

Airports will apply to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security. On the application, airports will have to show they have adequate customs and immigration infrastructure – in other words, they are truly an international airport capable of enforcing rules that apply to Cuba travel, the official said.

President Obama has a decision to make on Trading with the Enemy Act (TWTEA), the original legislation that was used to implement the Cuban embargo. According to Caribbean Net News:

TWTEA, enacted in anticipation of World War I in 1917, grants the president wide-reaching economic authority in times of war. In 1933, the act was extended to apply to national emergencies, only to be returned to an exclusively war-time power in 1977. It currently allows for the continuation of sanctions initiated in the 44 years between, as is the case with Cuba, which was declared an “international emergency” by President Kennedy in 1963, through annual renewal by the president. Cuba now stands as the only country subject to TWTEA

Hopefully President Obama will let TWTEA expire and continue to build a bridge with the Cuban People.

Blogging Becoming Popular in Cuba

There is hope for the Cuban people and that is becoming more apparent a bloggers are speaking out about the conditions within their country. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists:

Despite vast legal and technical obstacles, a growing number of Cuban bloggers have prevailed over the regime’s tight Internet restrictions to disseminate island news and views online. The bloggers, mainly young adults from a variety of professions, have opened a new space for free expression in Cuba, while offering a fresh glimmer of hope for the rebirth of independent ideas in Cuba’s closed system.

Cubans to Get Email Access

Cuban post offices may be getting access, according to the AP:

Many post offices already offer public computers, but they are linked to a national intranet – an extremely limited list of Cuba-only Web sites.
Cubans there can send and receive international e-mail, but direct access to the rest of the Web is blocked, limits far stricter than those imposed even in China or Saudi Arabia.
Internet supervisors at two Havana post offices said Wednesday that while authorities are preparing to apply the law and have even installed new, faster PCs in some locations, they did not know when the new rules will go into effect.

With coastal communities in both countries vulnerable, meteorology could bring the longtime adversaries closer together, especially with the policy of increased engagement pushed by President Obama, experts argue. Wayne Smith, a former American diplomat in Havana who is now a fellow at the Washington-based Center for International Policy, has brought an array of American officials to Cuba in recent years to look at how Cuban disaster preparedness programs manage to keep the number of hurricane deaths on the island so low.

“President Obama recently took a bold step in easing travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans,” said Barney Harford, president and CEO of Orbitz Worldwide. “The OpenCuba.org campaign calls on the President and Congress to take action to end the travel ban to Cuba, giving all Americans the freedom to visit what once was a premier tourist destination for U.S. citizens.”

“Our mission at Orbitz is to help travelers experience the world,” continued Harford. “67% of Americans would also support a policy that would allow U.S. travel agents such as Orbitz to book vacation travel to Cuba.”

The OpenCuba.org website gives travelers the opportunity to get directly involved in a grassroots effort to convince American legislators and regulators to end the ban on travel to Cuba. As a focus of the campaign, travelers will be asked to sign a petition calling for an end to the travel ban. Orbitz executives will formally present the petition to U.S. officials in Washington, DC, later this year.

Every person who signs the petition will receive a $100 coupon redeemable on Orbitz against a vacation to Cuba valid if and when the U.S. Government removes the ban on travel to Cuba, and as soon as Orbitz is able to offer such travel on its website.

The OpenCuba.org website also lets Americans write personal letters to President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton and members of the U.S. Congress regarding the Cuba travel ban.

TravelCubaNow.com supports Orbitz effort to promote Cuban Travel for US Citizens.

Prime Minister Barrow of Belize makes Cuba an issue, too. He calls for “the formal integration” of Cuba into the group and for the United States to lift the embargo.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega praised Castro and said the U.S. was punishing Cuba. “And just because of that I cannot feel comfortable attending this summit,” Ortega said. “I feel ashamed that I am attending this summit with the absence of Cuba.”

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner brought up Cuba’s expulsion from the group of leaders, calls on Obama to lift the embargo, and attacks the “Washington consensus” that has harmed the Americas.

However the leaders didn’t blame President Obama, they mostly spoke highly of the new leader. Daniel Ortega said:

“President Obama was born on August 4, 1961,” he read. “He was three-and-a-half months old.” He continued: “Obviously he doesn’t have any responsibility for that historic event.”

Now at the Summit of the Americas, Obama spoke more on US-Cuba Relations. According to NYTimes.com:

“The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba,” he said at the Summit of the Americas opening ceremony, according to his remarks released in advance by the White House. “I know there is a longer journey that must be traveled in overcoming decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take toward a new day.”

Speaking to Latin American leaders in Venezuela, President Castro said he had sent word to the US government “in private and in public” that he is open to negotiations as long as it is “on equal terms”.

There is still no formal contact between the Cuban authorities and the US government, but this is the latest in a series of exchanges which suggest that both sides appear to be making efforts to find a way to end the 50-year stalemate.

Earlier this week, the US president announced that he was lifting restrictions on Cuban Americans visiting relatives on the island and sending money home.

Following the easing of US travel restrictions, Mr Obama said it was up to Havana to make the next move.

In a further gesture of openness, U.S. telecommunications firms were freed to seek business there, too. But the broader U.S. trade embargo remained in place.

Cuba Prepares for US Tourism Invasion

Cubans are anticipating a huge influx of US Tourist by building a new marina with 1500 slips 80 miles east of Havana near Varadero. According to Reuters:

“If the travel ban is lifted, you’ll probably see hundreds, hundreds of American yachtsmen going to Cuba the next day,” said Timothy Ashby, a former U.S. Commerce Department official who studies Cuban commercial issues.

But all may not be so smooth according to this AP Article:

Cuba has about as many hotel rooms as Detroit and most are already full of Canadians and Europeans. Experts say droves of Americans could drive up prices, unleash calls for more flights and cruises than Cuba can handle and force the government to tighten visa restrictions to regulate the stampede.

An influx of Americans could create a lodging crunch. The communist state has partnered with foreign companies such as Spanish chain Sol Melia to offer about 46,000 hotel rooms across an island about the size of Pennsylvania. Some 17,300 of those rooms are concentrated in the beach resort of Varadero, 90 miles (140 kilometers) east of Havana.

If the US Embargo was lifted, US companies could build all those hotels.

And don’t expect the same level of service you’d find at a Miami resort:

Even at top Cuban resorts, it is often hard to get amenities as basic as an extra roll of toilet paper. Comforts including apples, french fries and bottled beer are sometimes scarce – not to mention perks like in-room coffee-makers or wireless Internet access.

Cuba is in desperate need of American Ingenuity, It’s time to end the embargo.

(Jeffrey) Davidow and other officials say the administration is also looking seriously at calls from some lawmakers to allow all Americans to travel to Cuba, appoint a special envoy to oversee policy toward the island and possibly end U.S. opposition to Cuba’s membership in the Organization of American States.

“We are engaged in a continual evaluation of our policy and how that policy could help result in a change in Cuba that could bring about a democratic society,” Davidow said.