• The President expands travel opportunities for academic research, educational travel, cultural travel, and religious travel;
• Return of people-to-people programs to essentially where the rules were at the end of the Clinton administration;
• The President allows all Americans to send financial support to the Cuban people, which will allow them to expand private sector activity at a time of restructuring in the Cuban economy and the Cuban system;
• The President expands the number of airports that can serve the Cuban market;
• The rules explaining each of these changes will be issued in a matter of weeks.

 STATEMENT FROM THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE AMERICAS

Sarah Stephens of the Center for Democracy in the Americas released the following statement in support of President Obama's Executive Order expanding travel to Cuba:

"This is an important step forward for our Cuba policy.

"At a time when Cubans are changing their system in fundamental ways, it is a good idea to have greater engagement, more Americans traveling to Cuba, and more opportunities to learn from each other as everyday Cubans reshape their lives and their country.

"It is my hope that Members of Congress who represent Cuban Americans - a community that can travel to Cuba without any limits at all - will not make efforts to thwart what the president has done.  This step authorizing non-tourist travel is a basic and positive step to take at this time.

"The president is to be commended for taking this step to improve our policy and, ideally, to move forward on reforming U.S.-Cuba relations.

"We will continue to press for the freedom to travel to Cuba for all Americans."

In today's news summary

Alan Gross:  This is another important story we are following.  There are welcomed signs emanating from Havana that there is finally movement in the case of Alan Gross.  Following the fourth round of renewed migration talks, Cuba allowed a senior State Department official to meet with the captive American, and the AP reported that Cuba may now charge, try, and possibly free Mr. Gross based on time already served.

If this actually occurs, it would provide long-sought relief for Mr. Gross and his family, who have been separated for thirteen months.  It would also demonstrate the importance of face-to-face negotiations - the migration talks were suspended in 2003 by President Bush and reopened by President Obama.  Finally, it would be a reminder to U.S. policy makers that the program and funding which led to Mr. Gross's imprisonment in December 2009 - activities designed under Helms-Burton to lead to the overthrow of Cuba's government - should be ended once and for all.

Posada Carriles: The trial of Luis Posada Carriles opened in El Paso, Texas this week with testimony from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official about the immigration fraud and charges and the allegations of perjury that link the former CIA asset for the first time to terrorism committed against Cuba.  According to the official, Posada confessed to an FBI agent in 2000 his involvement in the effort to assassinate Fidel Castro in Panama.

Rubio's Rhetoric:  Even before today's announcement, Senator Marco Rubio planned to pierce what he called  a "trial balloon" floated by the Obama administration on a further opening of travel and trade with Cuba.  In a Spanish-language radio interview, Rubio said that he'd help educate lawmakers about why loosening restrictions against Cuba was ill-advised given the human rights realities on the island.  In a curious shot against his new colleagues, Rubio said they weren't aware of these realities, "not because they're communists," but because many are from farm states and want to sell agriculture products to the island.  He went on to insist that U.S. policy toward Cuba should be tougher.

As President Obama has clearly recognized, this is not the time to double-down on a failed policy.  The U.S. needs to get out of the business of trying to overthrow or undermine Cuba's government and to normalize the relationship through direct engagement.  Cuba is undergoing significant changes in its own right.  So should we.