Friday, March 13, 2009

Not the last word

If you were wondering how Wednesday’s announcement by the Treasury Department fits with President Obama’s campaign promise to “immediately allow unlimited family travel and remittances to the island,” a quote in today’s Herald from White House spokeswoman Gannet Tseggai clears it up:

“The guidance issued yesterday by the Treasury Department was issued pursuant to a law passed by Congress. The President was not involved in the drafting of that provision, and it does not take the place of his own review of family visits and family cash remittances.”

Meanwhile, here are two letters from two Senators weighing in on Cuba policy: Senator Chris Dodd on the rules governing travel to promote agricultural sales, and Senator Mel Martinez on family travel.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dodd's last paragraph is spot on.

Please enlighten us on how cuban policies compare to our policies for travel in other countries with us sactions, such as iran, burma, North Korea, Sudan, etc.

answer: our policies are most rigid by far with Cuba - what a joke.

leftside said...

So it appears clear Obama is going to do something on Cuba before the Summit. The question now becomes will he go substantially beyond what Congress just did - basically just making the changes permanent and official? Brazil's FM (visiting the US) certainly hopes so (and I have a feeling he knows something):

"I think we would certainly encourage dialogue, encourage the end of isolation," Amorim said, adding that ending restrictions on travel and sending money back to Cuba would not be enough. "I think something bigger has to be done," he said.

Anonymous said...

typical...just as the regime has all these toadies out there carrying water for it, the news comes out that Russian bombers may be stationed on the island. Again Castro makes fools out his apologists, but then why would anyone be surprised?

Anonymous said...

Cabron we have bombers in former USSR satellite countries... Russians are just threatening to act in response (to our missle shield)

Why do you want one set of rules for USA, but opposite set for other countries.

Remember Russia, however imperfect, is a democracy... and the current pres. has over 75 percent approval... that not may be what democracy looks like in USA< but a 75 percent approval rating is what democracy looks like in russia.