Travel restrictions to Cuba lifted

WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- A lifting of travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans traveling to the island and a relaxation of rules on what can be sent to the country were enacted Monday.

The lifting of travel restrictions does not affect the trade embargo on the communist country, but eases prohibitions that limited Cuban-Americans from visiting relatives and restricted what they could send to Cuba.

"The president would like to see greater freedom for the Cuban people," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in making the announcement. "There are actions that he can and has taken today ... to provide some important steps to help" the Cuban people move toward democracy and "to increase the freedom they have."

Asked whether this would lead to any other warming of relations, Gibbs said, "depends on the actions of the Cuban government."

"The action the president took today is one that allows families to visit families; one that allows families to send back their hard-earned money to help out family members," Gibbs said.

"We're getting the U.S. out of the business of regulating the relationship between Cuban families," said Dan Restrepo, foreign policy adviser for Latin American affairs during the news briefing. "So should the Cuban government."

In addition, an effort to increase the flow if information among Cubans and between Cubans and the outside world, by allowing U.S. telecommunications companies to seek to provide services on the island "without having to go through the Cuban government," Restrepo said.

The announcement came as Obama prepares to travel to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and a stop in Mexico later this week.