US Considering Changes in Cuba Travel Policy

U.S. officials say the Obama administration is considering easing some travel restrictions to Cuba.

Administration and congressional officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the goal is to make it easier for researchers, educators and students to
travel to the communist-led island. Details of the proposed policy
shift were first reported by The New York Times.

The White House and State Department declined to comment Tuesday.

President Barack Obama has said he wants improved relations with Cuba. Last
year, his administration eased travel and money-transfer restrictions on
Cuban-Americans with relatives on the island.

A decades-old U.S. embargo on Cuba remains in effect. Mr. Obama has said the embargo will
stay in place until Havana takes steps toward democratic reforms.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, a Cuban-American from New Jersey, opposes any
policy changes. He says loosening restrictions would reward a
government that has shown little interest in reform.

In a recent statement, Menendez said this is not the time to ease pressure on the
Castro government. He said that promoting travel and wide-spread
remittances will give the government a much-needed infusion of dollars
that will only allow the Castro brothers to extend what he called their
reign of oppression and human rights violations.

A U.S. congressional panel voted in June to lift the decades-old ban on
American travel to Cuba, to make it easier to sell U.S. agricultural
exports there. Similar measures have failed in Congress in recent years
as opponents have argued that lifting the ban could prop up Cuba's
government.

Some information for this report was provided by AP.

Courtesy of VOA news