Archive for the ‘Thawing Relations’ Category
Key West to Cuba Flights Approved
Approved US travelers will soon have another option to visit places in Cuba. According to Reuters:
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.
Obama Eases Restrictions on Travel to Cuba, Airports Can Offer Direct Flights
The Obama administration has moved to ease travel restrictions to Cuba in a late Friday announcement. According to Politico:
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.
US – Cuba Talk About BP Oil Spill
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster which threatens Florida beaches is prompting the US and Cuba into “Working Level” talks. According to the Washington Post:
U.S and Cuban officials are holding “working level” talks on how to respond to the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill that is believed to be dumping some 5,000 barrels of crude a day into the Gulf of Mexico, two State Department officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The talks add to signs of concern that strong currents could carry the slick far from the site of the spill, possibly threatening the Florida Keys and the pristine white beaches along Cuba’s northern coast.
Cuba is a mere 90 miles from the Florida Keys and if the oil is picked up by the Gulf Stream, the oil affecting Florida beaches and Cuba’s shoreline will become a environmental and tourism nightmare for both countries.
US Lifts Online Sanctions – Cuba to Get Web Based Communication Tools
The US Treasury announced it has amended the Cuban Assets Control Regulations which will allow the Cuban people the ability to use web based applications such as online email, blogs, wikis, etc.
Internet companies such as Google, supported the change in policy according to The Hill:
Google on Tuesday heralded the Treasury Department’s decision to lift federal restrictions on Web communication exports to Iran, Sudan and Cuba.
The policy shift marks a “great accomplishment,” said Bob Boorstin, director of policy communications for the search-engine giant.During a speech at a conference in Geneva, Boorstin said Google could now offer citizens in those countries access to such services as Google Earth, its mapping software; Google Talk, its instant-messaging tool; and Picassa, its photo-sharing site.
“We are hopeful this will help people like yourselves in this room and activists all over the world take a small step down what is certainly a long road ahead,” Boorstin said.
Cuba Agrees to US Flights over Cuban Territory for Haitian Earthquake Relief
The Cuban Government has allowed US relief flights according to USA Today:
This morning the White House announced: “We have coordinated with the Cuban government for authorization to fly medical evacuation flights from the U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Miami, through Cuban airspace, cutting 90 minutes off one-way flight time.”
Recent Developments: Cubans to Get Email Access, Blogging Becomes More Popular, And TWTEA is Under Review
TWTEA
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.
US-Cuba Work Together on Hurricane Preparations
The US and Cuba are cooperating on hurricane gathering information as the season heats up. According the NYTimes:
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.
US-Cuban Immigration Talks to Resume
The process of normalizing relations between the US and Cuba continue to move forward. Two of the issues at hand involve immigration and mail service. According to AP:
Cuba has agreed to resume talks with the Obama administration on legal immigration of Cubans to the United States and direct mail service between the two countries, a State Department official said Sunday.
The communist government notified the U.S. on Saturday that it had accepted an administration overture made May 22 to restart the immigration talks, suspended by President George W. Bush after the last meeting in 2003. Cuba also expressed a willingness to cooperate with the U.S. on fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, and on hurricane disaster preparedness.
Latin American Countries Want US to do More in Normalizing Relations with Cuba
Latin American leaders have been upset with the lack of progress since the Summit of the Americas in April. While there seems to be a more diplomatic conservation emerging, the upcoming Organization of American States conference on June 2 in Honduras may raise questions for the Administration. According to NYTimes:
A majority of the organization’s members is expected to support lifting a provision that was used to expel Cuba from the organization in 1962, citing its alliance with “the Communist bloc” that broke “the unity and solidarity of the hemisphere.”
But the Administration doesn’t agree:
Administration officials reiterated this week a long-term American determination to keep Cuba out of the organization until it demonstrated a willingness to adopt the democratic principles that are a part of the organization’s charter.
Informal US-Cuba Meetings May Move Forward
The conciliatory tone between the US and Cuba at the Summit of the Americas last weekend is offering hope for normalizing relations. According to the NYTimes:
The officials said informal meetings were being planned between the State Department and Cuban diplomats in the United States to determine whether the two governments could open formal talks on a variety of issues, including migration, drug trafficking and other regional security matters.
And the administration is also looking for ways to open channels for more cultural and academic exchanges between Cuba and the United States, the officials said.
The next steps, said a senior administration official, would be meant to “test the waters,” to see whether the United States and Cuba could develop a “serious, civil, open relationship.”
But not all is smooth sailing in the Florida Straits:
After saying the United States was “ready to talk about a series of issues,” the official added, “This thing with Cuba is going to take a lot of time, and it may not work.”