Obama prometeu durante a sua campanha eleitoral para a presidência alterar as relações norte-americanas com Cuba, bloqueadas há mais de quatro décadas.
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Começam a aparecer as primeiras decisões no sentido de uma abertura que só pode beneficiar os cubanos, tanto de um ponto de vista económico como político. Mais tarde ou mais cedo, o povo cubano reclamará nas ruas a liberdade de expressão que lhes foi retirada em nome de uma independência que condicionou dramaticamente o seu desenvolvimento económico.
Do contacto entre sociedades resultou sempre a supremacia cultural da mais avançada. Dificilmente, os actuais governantes de Havana poderão continuar a contar, a médio prazo, em campo livre, com a adesão popular à sua ideologia.
Sobretudo por esta razão, o bloqueio norte-americano foi um erro crasso.
U.S. Lifts Almost All Curbs on Family Visits to Cuba
By Karen DeYoung
The Treasury Department formally lifted nearly all U.S. restrictions on family travel to Cuba on Thursday, along with limits on how much money families can send to relatives on the island.
The department also eased regulations prohibiting U.S. telecommunications and satellite linkages between the United States and Cuba and licensing requirements for visitors engaged in agricultural and medical sales.
President Obama first announced most of the changes in April as part of a general opening that he said would allow Americans to reach out to the Cuban people, and he ordered Cabinet departments to take
The department also eased regulations prohibiting U.S. telecommunications and satellite linkages between the United States and Cuba and licensing requirements for visitors engaged in agricultural and medical sales.
President Obama first announced most of the changes in April as part of a general opening that he said would allow Americans to reach out to the Cuban people, and he ordered Cabinet departments to take
steps to implement the changes. Since then, the administration has also resumed a regular dialogue with the Cuban government on immigration issues and said it would move toward a resumption of direct mail service between the two countries.
The United States severed diplomatic relations with communist Cuba and first imposed a broad trade embargo during the Kennedy administration. Restrictions on travel and other nongovernmental contact have ebbed and flowed over the past five decades, with the tightest limits on family travel and remittances imposed during the administration of President George W. Bush.
U.S. citizens and residents were limited to family visits once every three years, and strict ceilings were placed on the amount and frequency of remittances. Although a congressional majority pushed through provisions exempting the sale of certain agricultural and medical goods from economic sanctions, the Bush administration set tight rules for allowing American sales representatives to travel to Cuba to negotiate the deals.
Obama has said the United States is not willing to explore a resumption of diplomatic ties with Cuba until it releases its political prisoners and the Cuban people are allowed democratic freedoms, measures that the government of President Raúl Castro, who replaced his brother, Fidel, last year, has shown no sign of undertaking.
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Na foto, o edifício do Capitólio (cuja identificação com o Capitólio em Washington DC é evidente) e que foi sede do governo cubano mas é agora sede da Academia das Ciências de Cuba.
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