WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration Friday said it will allow for more U.S. travel to Cuba, making it easier for schools, churches and cultural groups to visit the island.
A senior Obama official told The Miami Herald the much-expected move to expand cultural, religious and educational travel to Cuba is part of the administration's continuing ``effort to support the Cuban people's desire to freely determine their own future.
President Barack Obama is also restoring the amount of money ($2,000) that can be sent to nonfamily members to the level they were at during part of the Clinton and Bush administrations. There will be a quarterly limit on the amount that any American can send: $500 per quarter to ``support private economic activity.''
The administration also will restore the broader ``people-to-people'' category of travel, which allows ``purposeful'' visits to increase contacts between U.S. and Cuban citizens.
The usual R's and D's have the usual positions.
I'm of two minds on this. American tourists and dollars are corrosive to thugocracies. Putting money, even a little, into the hands of common people emboldens them. They work and scrimp just to survive in a cesspit of a country, and all of a sudden there's some real money around to go after. Even a little starts to improve the local standards of living.
That improvement in turn leads to political revolution, as people finally get the courage (as we just saw in Tunisia, only a semi-cesspit of a country) to look their leaders in the eye and ask the magic question -- "say, you guys are kinda stupid. Who put you in charge?" |
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