South Florida's Cuban community mixed on policy change

President Barack Obama's overture Monday toward Cuba – the most significant in decades – lifted all travel and gift restrictions for Cuban Americans and sent charter companies scrambling for more and bigger jets to meet the expected demand.

The formal announcement, expected for months as part of a presidential campaign promise, came at what apparently was the first-ever bilingual White House briefing, with spokesman Robert Gibbs saying Obama was "taking some concrete steps today to bring about some much-needed change that will benefit the people of Cuba, to increase the freedom that they have. . . . "

The policy change – which includes pushing for more cellphone and satellite service for Cubans on the island – strikes middle ground, reversing former President George W. Bush's efforts to tighten restrictions against Cuba but stopping far short of some efforts in Congress to lift all travel restrictions to the island.

In Miami, travel agencies began considering additional charter flights and bigger planes.

But the policy change also reignites one of the most emotionally charged issues in Miami's Cuban exile community: Should exiles visit the island they fled, and in doing so, help prop up the communist government's economy with U.S. dollars?

At Marazul Charters on Bird Road, exile Esteban Fernandez, 75, was among the conflicted. He left the island 47 years ago but has an ailing parent there.

"My mother is 97 years old. She doesn't have much time," Fernandez said. "If it were up to me, I'd never go back, but I need to see my mother."

In a "reflection" published by the Cuban media late Monday, Fidel Castro said the Obama administration has lifted "some odious restrictions" on travel by Cuban Americans, but added that the decision included "not a word" about lifting the trade embargo.

Castro added that Cuba does not "question [Obama's] sincerity and his willingness to change the policy and image of the United States."

White House officials said the announcement is aimed at hastening change on the island in part by increasing contact with Cuban Americans and helping Cubans become less reliant on government.

"We think the positive benefits here will way outweigh any negative effects that they may have," said Dan Restrepo, a special assistant to the president who delivered his remarks in English and Spanish. "That creating independence, creating space for the Cuban people to operate freely from the regime is the kind of space they need to start the process toward a more democratic Cuba."

The changes include allowing unlimited family visits and remittances, allowing U.S. companies to seek contracts for communication services in Cuba and an expansion of humanitarian items that can be sent. Bush had limited family travel to once every three years,