White House lifts some travel restrictions on Cuba

Dan Restrepo, President Barack Obama's senior
adviser on Latin America, speaks about the changes
in America's Cuba policy, (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

The idea that governments can tell their citizens where they can and cannot travel has always been suspect. By what right do administrators of a supposedly free nation put whole chunks of the planet off limits to the people paying their salaries? President Barack Obama may or may not believe that people have the right to spend their time and money wherever they wish, but his administration is easing some restrictions on private contact with Cuba.

In a regular press briefing Monday, presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs and Latin American advisor Dan Restrepo announced the federal government will allow unlimited travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans to their families in Cuba, and will ease some other restrictions on contact with the island.

Specifically, according to a White House fact sheet, the Obama administration plans to:

• Lift all restrictions on transactions related to the travel of family members to Cuba.
• Remove restrictions on remittances to family members in Cuba.
• Authorize U.S. telecommunications network providers to enter into agreements to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the United States and Cuba.
• License U.S. telecommunications service providers to enter into roaming service agreements with Cuba’s telecommunications service providers.
• License U.S. satellite radio and satellite television service providers to engage in transactions necessary to provide services to customers in Cuba.
• License persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction to activate and pay U.S. and third-country service providers for telecommunications, satellite radio and satellite television services provided to individuals in Cuba.
• Authorize the donation of certain consumer telecommunication devices without a license.
• Add certain humanitarian items to the list of items eligible for export through licensing exceptions.

That's not quite a free pass to add the tropical dictatorship to the regular vacation rotation, but it's a huge improvement over a decades-long embargo on the island that has made it easier for Cuban autocrats Fidel and Raoul Castro to play the role of victims in disputes with the United States.

Eased relations with Cuba aren't just respectful of people's right to travel where they please; they should make for good politics, too. A CNN poll released last week found that 64% of Americans favor loosening restrictions on Americans visiting Cuba.

email J.D.: civilliberties (at) tuccille.com