Blog: Cuba travel announcement imminent

From the U.S. Policy & Business Blog

Happy New Year to All – Late Breaking – Reliable sources to our blog advise an announcement on Cuba travel is imminent. Over the last thirty days an intense debate and discussion has been ongoing at the White House, trying to make sense of the misleading information given to it by Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fl), former Rep. Kendrick Meek (D- Fl), Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fl), and Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) who had collectively urged the White House to suspend its intended announcement of new travel regulations allowing more travel to Cuba for U.S. citizens on the grounds that such an announcement would hurt the Democrats in November in Florida. Given the “shellacking” President Obama took from the Republicans in the elections, especially in Florida, the credibility of this quartet on matters relating to U.S. Cuba relations was called into question by White House staff and advisers to the President.

The White House is expected to announce updates to current travel regulations expanding travel for academic and religious purposes as well expand the number of U.S. airports that can provide charter flights to Cuba. Unfortunately, this announcement will not revert the travel regulations back to the successful people to people regulations of the Clinton era which pro-embargo hardliners fear.

We look forward to the announcement and will comment and analyze the new regulations when they are announced.

Tony Martinez