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| Refrigerator magnets are displayed for sale in a tourist shop, several showing images of U.S. President Barack Obama, at a market in Havana, Cuba, Monday, March 14, 2016. President Obama will travel to Cuba on March 20. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- President Barack Obama sent an unmistakable message to
Americans on Tuesday ahead of his historic trip to Havana: Cuba is open
for business.
Punching fresh holes in the
generations-old U.S. embargo, Obama's administration removed the last
meaningful restrictions on travel, putting a Cuba vacation within reach
for millions of Americans over the coming years. The sweeping changes
also clear a path for Cuban athletes to one day play Major League
Baseball and other professional sports.
Although
tourism is still technically off-limits, the ban becomes essentially
unenforceable, with Americans permitted to travel on their own with no
prior permission. White House officials said there would be "no
shortage" of opportunities for Americans to fill the loosely defined
requirement that they engage with locals in a bid to further U.S.-Cuban
understanding.
"The travel ban is on life
support here, because for all intents and purposes, anybody can go,"
Sen. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who supports Obama's approach,
said in an interview. "All these barriers are coming down."
The
White House announced the package of changes five days before Obama
will embark on the first presidential trip to the communist country in
nearly 90 years. The more lenient rules, like the trip itself, aim to
further the rapprochement that Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro
began more than two years ago.
Among the changes unveiled Tuesday:
- The U.S. eliminated a ban on Cuban access to the international banking system
- Cuba announced that the first direct mail in a half-century would fly from the U.S. to Cuba starting Wednesday
- Cuban citizens can start to earn salaries in the U.S. in most circumstances without immigrating
- Cuban citizens can open U.S. bank accounts and use them to send remittances back home.
The
United States is also poised to ease security restrictions for ships
coming from Cuba bound for American ports, U.S. officials told The
Associated Press, a step that would ease the way for both ferry service
between Florida and Cuba and U.S. cruise ships docking in Havana.
Obama's administration has approved both ferries and cruises over the
last year, but neither service has started.
The officials weren't authorized to discuss the details publicly ahead of the formal announcement.
Yet
it was unclear whether Cuba would respond by easing its own barriers on
U.S. travel and commerce, including a requirement that U.S. companies
operating in Cuba hire workers through a state-run agency, a key U.S.
sticking point. The Castro government has moved slowly enough to raise
questions about whether there will significant trade will resume before
Obama leaves office.
"These unilateral actions
will further prop up a communist regime in Cuba that has a long record
of brutal human rights abuses," said House Foreign Affairs Committee
Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif.
The wave of
changes unveiled Tuesday marked some of the most significant shifts
since Obama and Castro restored relations. Embassies have re-opened,
U.S. companies can now manufacture in Cuba and commercial flights are to
begin within months. U.S. hotel chains including Starwood and Marriott
are expected to soon get U.S. approval to manage hotels in Cuba - all
signs of a functioning economic relationship that seemed unimaginable
just a few years ago.
Ben Rhodes, Obama's
deputy national security adviser, said the policy is driven by the
belief that more direct interaction with Americans will eventually lead
to greater freedom for Cubans.
"When they're
engaged with the American people, they have greater access to
information, they have greater access to different resources, different
points of view," Rhodes said.
Yet the U.S.
trade embargo that Congress enacted after Cuba's 1959 revolution remains
in place. Obama will use his trip to Cuba to renew his call for
Congress to lift the embargo, though near-term prospects are bleak.
Cuban-Americans
who oppose the rapprochement say Obama has flagrantly ignored the
sanctions and rewarded a government with a troubling human rights
record. But Obama has claimed near-limitless leverage to implement the
embargo in a way that essentially renders it void. Matthew Borman of the
U.S. Commerce Department said the embargo merely requires all commerce
to be licensed by the U.S.; it doesn't limit how generously those
licenses are granted.
"From that perspective, that's how we implement the embargo," Borman said.
Allowing
Cubans to earn U.S. salaries clears one major hurdle for Cuban baseball
players to start filling U.S. dugouts. Major League Baseball is
negotiating with both the U.S. and Cuba to create a legal means for
Cubans to play without abandoning their country, eliminating the need
for some of the world's highest-priciest baseball talent to use human
traffickers to get to the major leagues.
