At the third international conference in Havana on “Nation and Emigration” at the end of May, Cuba’s foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque told the 465 participants, who were overwhelmingly Cuban immigrants living in the United States and other countries, that the Cuban government has eased travel regulations to the island by Cuban immigrants.

The measures include establishing a new office to assist Cubans living abroad wishing to visit the country.

Cuba will also grant university scholarships to children of Cuban émigrés and create summer programs in Spanish language and Cuban culture and history.

The foreign minister noted that the new steps come on top of others taken the last half decade to facilitate family visits. “Those who migrate legally no longer have to wait five years to return to our country on a visit,” Pérez Roque said. He added that those visiting do not have to stay at hotels, as was the case in 1994.

Pérez Roque announced that as of June 1 all Cubans living abroad will no longer need an entry permit to travel to Cuba. This requirement was eliminated in 1994 for those living temporarily abroad.

Sales of all items in “dollar stores” also resumed in Cuba May 24, according to the Cuban daily Granma and other news reports. Two weeks earlier the Cuban government had suspended sales of all goods at these stores except food, soap, and other personal hygiene items.

Individuals who work in the tourist industry and other sectors of the Cuban economy where they have access to dollars, or those receiving remittances from relatives abroad, can purchase essential items like soap and cooking oil that are scarce in other outlets.

Havana had temporarily suspended the dollar store sales as one among a series of measures responding to new sanctions by Washington.

Due to pressures from rising oil prices on the world market and the unceasing economic war against the Cuban Revolution by the U.S. rulers, the Cuban government expects rising costs of imported goods sold at dollar stores and other economic problems. As part of withstanding these pressures, Havana announced it would take such long-term measures as increasing use of draft animals and lowering the use of petroleum derivatives in agriculture; raising nickel and cobalt production, metals Cuba exports for hard currency; and intensifying search for oil and gas deposits in and around the Caribbean island in areas with signs of good exploration prospects.

According to Granma, the Cuban government used the suspension of sales to organize restickering of products, most of the prices of which rose. Prices on food and personal hygiene items, clothing, children’s shoes, baby supplies and school backpacks reportedly went up by 10 percent. Increases in the prices of alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and gasoline ranged from 15 percent to 25 percent, according to the International Herald Tribune.

U.S. president George Bush announced the new sanctions against Cuba at a May 6 press conference at the White House. Among them are new limits on travel to Cuba by Cuban-Americans and on the number of family members on the island remittances can be sent to. Anyone in Cuba who is a member of the Communist Party is now prohibited from receiving such remittances.

Trips to the island by Cuban-Americans to visit family members are now limited to once every three years as opposed to once a year as it has been up till now. In addition, Cuban-Americans will now be required to apply for permission for each trip where previously they were allowed to travel under a general license that covered visits to family members. They would also not be eligible to apply for a such a license until three years after their last visit. This applies retroactively. Anyone who visited Cuba last year, for example, will not be eligible to visit again until 2006. Anyone who visited two years ago, has to wait another year now before applying for a new permit. And any Cuban who immigrates to the United States would not be eligible to apply for a license to visit the island until three years after they left Cuba.

While visiting family members, Cuban-Americans previously were allowed to spend up to $164 per day on expenses. That is now reduced to $50 per day. The State Department report justifies the cut by saying that “travelers will stay with family.” This measure is also aimed at the Cuban hotel and tourist industry.

The restrictions on remittances to relatives in Cuba continue be limited to $1,200 per year but can only be sent to “immediate family members”—eliminating cousins, aunts, and uncles. The new regulations authorize U.S. cop agencies to set up “sting” operations to entrap “mule” networks and others who carry money to Cuba illegally and assist in any way in unauthorized remittances.
 
 
Related articles:
Tufts University symposium discusses ‘Cuban policies, politics since Cold War’  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home