Congress has voted to lift limits that former US president George W. Bush tightened on Cuban-Americans wanting to visit relatives in Cuba.
US citizens with family in Cuba will be able to visit the nation more often and stay as long as they like under the legislation. The measures were included in a US$410 billion spending bill to fund government operations for the remainder of the fiscal year.
The spending bill was approved by the Senate on Tuesday night. It was passed by the House of Representatives last month.
Changes in rules for family travel to Cuba come amid debate on whether the US should lift its trade embargo against Cuba.
Under the bill, that US President Barack Obama was expected to sign yesterday, Cuban-Americans will be able to travel to Cuba once a year to visit relatives and stay for an unlimited duration. Existing rules limit family visits to once every three years for no more than 14 days at a time.
The bill will also ease financing rules for imports of food and medicine into Cuba. That provision prompted protests by lawmakers who said it would reward a brutal dictatorship.
In letters released on Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner assured lawmakers that the bill would not substantially change the rules governing agricultural sales.
The US embargo on other exports to Cuba remains in place, as do restrictions on most travel.
Cubans applauded the passage of the bill.and said they hoped for more changes under Obama.
“I’m happy they are easing the rules so the Cubans can come. Families should not have to suffer because of political disputes between governments,” teacher Hugo Alfonso said in Havana. “Cubans have suffered the embargo for many years and Bush tightened the rope. Now is the time to improve relations between the two countries.”
In Miami, there were mixed reactions from the Cuban exile community, which is split between those who favor greater contact and opening between Washington and Havana and some anti-communist hardliners who oppose any easing of US sanctions under the rule of Fidel and Raul Castro.
“People-to-people contact is the No. 1 factor of change in a closed society like the one in Cuba. It’s also the right of a Cuban to be able to return to his country,” Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the Democracy Movement, said in Miami.
But he urged Obama to use his authority to completely lift restrictions on travel.
“He can do it with the stroke of a pen,” Sanchez said.
“It will be something good that will improve commerce with the United States,” 19-year-old Arnier Negrin said in Havana. “I hope they change other things, but I’m not too optimistic.”
But in Miami, anti-Castro Cuban exile TV and radio commentator Ninoska Perez criticized the steps contained in the bill as “rewarding a 50-year-old dictatorship.”
“It has nothing to do with the families, because there are a lot of families that cannot travel to Cuba ... It’s pure economic interests,” Perez said.
Many in Cuba believe Obama will end the embargo, although he said during the presidential campaign that he would maintain the policy to use as leverage for change in Cuba.
Cuban President Raul Castro and his older brother and predecessor Fidel Castro have praised Obama’s personal qualities, but tried to dampen expectations by saying that one man cannot change long-standing US policy aimed at toppling the Cuban government.
The bill ran into surprisingly stiff opposition, including from two of Obama’s fellow Democrats, showing that change in US-Cuba policy will not come easily.
Still, Niurys Alfaro, 25, said her hopes remain high.
“I would like for Obama to change things and I believe he understands that the hostile policy of his country serves nothing,” Alfaro said. “I hope they let him do good things.”
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