Hurricanes, remittances and Cuba

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September 6, 2:40 PM

by Wilfredo Rodriguez-Padilla, Immigrant Community Examiner

 

 

Photo from the BBC.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama thinks so. “I will immediately allow unlimited family travel and remittances to the island,’’ Obama said in a speech at the annual Cuban American National Foundation, Cuban Independence Day luncheon on May, 23. “It's time to let Cuban Americans see their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers. It's time to let Cuban American money make their families less dependent upon the Castro regime.’’

In 2004 President Bush tightened the restrictions on traveling and remittances to the regime. “[A] total of $300 per quarter may be sent to nationals of Cuba who are members of the remitter’s immediate family (spouse, child, grandchild, parent, grandparent, or sibling)” says a current CRS Report for Congress explaining the new provisions.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain supports the embargo and the tight restrictions. In a political ad aimed at the Cuban community, Roberto Martin Perez – a Cuban political prisoner for 28  years – outlined McCain’s position on the regime. “Rather than resume relations with Raul Castro, John McCain wants first and foremost for all political prisoners to be released,” said Perez in the Spanish ad.

Here’s the CBS report:

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