US/Cuba changes DO NOT INCLUDE TOURISM TRAVEL. We're still travel banned. eom

[Mika]

[DonViejo]

1. The embargo isn't lifted either...

only Congress can do that.

[carolinayellowdog]

2. damn, I was ready to renew my passport

Havana's the only national capital on my bucket list. Loved Santo Domingo.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Just go through Canada,

believe they still have direct flights in and out daily. Seems to me,there are ferries that travel from Dominican Republic to Cuba,at least there were in the late 1990's.

[Mika]

5. There are direct flights out of Florida.

No matter how one gets there, if one is an American or US resident alien one is still travel banned if one does not qualify under the limited travel permissions by OFAC.

[Peace Patriot]

4. If U.S. sanctions are not lifted & the travel ban isn't lifted...

...this doesn't seem like a very big change, but it seems to be a beginning. The Rotters article you posted says: There has been a prisoner exchange. Alan Gross is apparently out of jail. He's quoted in the article. Will the Cuban 5 (now 4, I believe) be released as well? And, talks have started on the U.S. opening an embassy in Cuba.

Okay, here's more info:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/17/obama-cuba_n_6340550.html

Gross is already in the U.S. The U.S. has released 3 Cubans. Cuba has also released a U.S. "intelligence asset" that Cuba "has held for twenty years." (Who is that? Do you know, Mika?) Pope Francis was behind all this (lit the fire under Obama and Raul Castro with a letter to each). And Canada has been facilitating U.S./Cuba diplomatic talks (in Canada).

Obama says some sensible things--like, why continue a stupid, self-defeating, insane policy "that began before most of us were born"? (um, words to that effect). And the Cuban Mafia in Congress provided some idiotic statements to round the article out.

I'm looking around for non-corporate-monopoly articles, for more and deeper info.

[Mika]

6. Last I heard, the 3 remaining of the Cuban 5 are home in Cuba.

The thing that Cuba needs most is for the US to lift the travel sanctions entirely. That would bring billions of dollars to everyday Cubans who work in the tourism biz, directly and indirectly.

Of course, this is the thing that isn't going to change (for now). As I read more, I'm understanding that prez O's changes work for the US' corporate benefit, not for the benefit of the US and Cuban citizenry.

[Demeter]

7. So, this is just a publicity scam for the Pope and the Pres, and a chance to spring some CIA thugs?

I am so not impressed.

[Mika]

8. Leveraging an opening for another Twitter revolution.

Transnational Wall Street corporate (read: American) interests first, foremost, and always.

[Judi Lynn]

9. It's always sad when the Presidents refer to "American Interests"

in ways we know mean they are more important than the lives of everyone in the world.

I'll just bet there are so many Americans who DON'T want to control the lives of the the people in the rest of the world, not in their names. They would love PEACE and RESPECT FOR OTHERS in their names.