The 75-minute flight carried 89 customers filling most of the Boeing 737’s 100 seats. Each paid $445 round trip, plus $2 a pound for luggage. The trip culminated a yearslong effort by airport and political leaders to win federal approval for nonstop flights to Cuba.

The other reform allows foreign investors to lease land as long as 99 years. European Investors will be building hotels, resorts and golf courses. Of course construction workers, equipment operators, architects, building supply vendors and the like will prosper. But none of these workers or investors will be from the US or economically hard hit Florida, only 90 miles away, because we’re still in the dark ages of diplomacy.

The 25-20 vote in the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee sets the stage for a potentially blistering debate this year in both the full House and the Senate.
“We have tried isolating Cuba for more than fifty years and it has not worked,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson said. “Today’s vote demonstrates that Congress is ready to change our nation’s approach on this issue.”

But Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez said, “I oppose and will filibuster any attempt to pass the bill in the Senate. The big corporate interests behind this bill couldn’t care less about whether the Cuban people are free or not – they only care about padding their profits by opening up a new market,” and “Repression is repression and dictatorships are dictatorships, no matter where they are located or whether you want to use their resorts.”

This is one of the few issues both the left and right agree on, from the US Chamber of Commerce to Jimmy Carter. Sen. Menendez is one of the few to not realize that nearly 50 years of bad policy hasn’t worked.

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.

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) applauded yesterday’s introduction of a House bill that would allow for open travel for all Americans to Cuba and further facilitate U.S. agricultural exports to that nation.

The Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act (H.R. 4645) was offered by House Agriculture Committee Chairman, Collin Peterson, and is currently co-sponsored by 33 other Members of Congress, including Representatives Jerry Moran of Kansas, Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut and Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri.

The NMPF also sees the value of ending travel restrictions to Cuba:

The other critical element that H.R. 4645 would tackle is to abolish restrictions on Americans’ rights to travel to Cuba. This would facilitate U.S. exporters’ ability to conduct business with Cuba, spurring greater demand for U.S. agricultural products.

“This bill would help to address administrative and technical barriers to U.S. dairy exports to Cuba that are not in keeping with the original spirit and intent of Congress when it determined that we should be able to export agricultural products to Cuba roughly ten years ago,” said Tom Suber, President of the U.S. Dairy Export Council. “The Cuban market holds significant promise for U.S. dairy exporters but has become increasingly difficult to supply within the past few years.”

Raul Castro said Cuban ministers will meet on Tuesday to consider revising spending plans for the rest of the year because “of the effects of the world economic crisis on our economy.” In particular, he said there has been a “significant reduction in export income and additional restrictions to access external financing sources.”

A recent government report said imports are expected to plummet 22.2 percent, or some $3.4 billion in 2009, while exports will decline by $500 million. In response, the cash-short government has taken belt-tightening measures such as scheduled blackouts to save energy, selected factory shutdowns, public transport reductions, spending cuts and the freezing of foreign business bank accounts.

Considering Cuba has some of the most fertile agricultural land in the world and it still imports 60% of its food, Raul has made at least one-step in the right direction:

But his only major reform so far has been in agriculture, where he launched a program to let private farmers cultivate unused state land.
He said that of 110,000 applications for land, 82,000 have been granted. More needs to be done to advance the land plan so Cuba can increase food production and cut import costs, he said.

Now is the time for the Cuban government to grant human rights to its people, open the political process and bring their country into the modern era.