What Happened to That New Cuba Policy?
It's been about four months since President Obama announced looser restrictions on travel and sending money to Cuba. But they haven't gone into effect yet, the Treasury Department confirms to NEWSWEEK. So what's the holdup?
Some in the "Cuba lobby"—Cuban-Americans in Congress like Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Sen. Bob Menendez—suggest the administration may be mulling their objections (Menendez questions lifting remittance restrictions; he favors travel). Others cite red tape in an administration dealing with 1,001 issues.
But a State Department official, who isn't authorized to speak for the record about internal policy discussions, suggests one reason for the delay is a flurry of new talks between the countries that could lead to an even wider opening to Cuba, including a lifting of restrictions on diplomatic movements. "There are discussions going on, and some new things have been put on the table," says the State official.
In late July, in yet another sign that the Obama administration wants to make nice, the State Department shut down an electronic billboard that the Bush administration had erected across the front of the building that houses the U.S. interests section in Havana. The billboard, which is said to have irked Fidel Castro, continually flashed quotes about freedom from American icons like Lincoln and King. But with Castro's brother, Raúl, in charge, Team Obama believes that it can make more progress talking than sniping.
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Michael Hirsh covers international affairs for NEWSWEEK reporting on a range of topics from Homeland Security to postwar Iraq. He co-authored the November 3, 2003 cover story, "Bush's $87 Billion Mess," about the Iraq reconstruction plan. The issue was one of three that won the 2004 National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
Hirsh writes a column on Newsweek.com entitled "The World from Washington" focusing on foreign policy issues and serves as Washington Web Editor for Newsweek. He also edited NEWSWEEK's "Issues 2007" special issue, which explores all facets and issues of globalization.
Hirsh was the magazine's Foreign Editor from January 2001 to January 2002, and helped guide Newsweek's award-winning coverage of the September 11 attacks and the war on terror. Before that he was a Senior Editor/Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in the Washington bureau, writing about foreign affairs and international economics. Hirsh was also managing editor for the Newsweek International special issue "ISSUES 2001," the second in a series of three annual reviews of the global economy in the new century.
From September 1998 to December 1999, as Diplomatic Correspondent, Hirsh covered foreign policy, the State Department and the Treasury. He moved to the Washington D.C. bureau in May 1997, previously serving as a senior editor of Newsweek International, covering the same beat.
Prior to joining NEWSWEEK in October 1994 as a New York-based senior writer, Hirsh served as the Tokyo-based Asia Bureau Chief for Institutional Investor from 1992 to 1994. Previously, he was a correspondent for the Associated Press in Tokyo and a National Editor in New York.
Hirsh was co-winner of the 2002 Ed Cunningham Award for best magazine reporting from abroad for Newsweek's terror coverage and contributed to the team of Newsweek reporters who earned the magazine the prestigious 2002 National Magazine Award for General Excellence, also for the magazine's coverage of the war on terror. Hirsh also won a Deadline Club Award in 1997 for investigative reporting on his expose of the IRS's abusive practices, and was one of five finalists for a 1994 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for his article, "China's Financial Revolutionaries." It profiled the new generation of mainland Chinese businessmen who are striving to build a capitalist financial system from scratch. Hirsh is the author of the nonfiction book "At War with Ourselves" (Oxford University Press, 2003) which explores America's foreign policy and its global role.
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