Last Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department officially lifted nearly all restrictions on Cuban-American remittances and travel to Cuba—measures promised by the Obama administration nearly five months ago. The department also relaxed regulations prohibiting U.S. telecommunications and satellite linkages between the United States and Cuba, and eased licensing requirements for visitors engaged in agricultural and medical sales.
This latter item was the only new addition to the announcement of new policy in April. It will allow U.S. producers to more easily sell agricultural goods to Cuba, which several members of Congress argued makes “good economic sense” in these times.
Why did the Treasury Department take so long to enact the changes the President encouraged them to push through quickly?… Perhaps to let the opposition’s yelling die down. Republicans in Congress and some Cuban-American groups were vocal about their hostility to the changes when they were announced in April. And Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had actually promised several Congressmembers concerned about impending changes that he would personally make sure travel was kept tightly restricted. The changes implemented now are of course more than opponents wanted, but still less than many supporters of the administration have hoped.
A closing thought from Alfredo Prieto, managing editor of the Havana-based Temas Magazine: “the embargo is like a piñata hanging from the ceiling… which doesn’t have to be pulled down in a single jerk, but just taken apart piece by piece—today an arm, tomorrow a leg, later the head—until it finally falls from its own weight.”