CUBAN AMERICAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION SUPPORTS NEW CUBA POLICY MEASURES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                January 14^TH, 2011

FOR MORE INFORMATION:                                                                              Danny Lafuente (305)-592-7768 or (305)-496-4448

CUBAN AMERICAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION SUPPORTS NEW CUBA POLICY MEASURES

The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) regards the Cuba policy measures announced today by the Obama Administration as a positive step towards furthering people-to-people contact with Cubans on the island. These measures concur with the recommendations that CANF presented to President Obama at the beginning of his presidency and include the establishment of new points of departure in the United States for purposeful travel to Cuba and the expansion of opportunities for religious and academic groups that wish to interact with the Cuban people. Additionally, the new regulations allow all Americans to send remittances of up to $500 per quarter for humanitarian and economic purposes to any individual on the island who is not a member of the Communist Party.

"We feel these measures promote the interests of the people of the United States as well as the interests of the people of Cuba. A greater ability to send remittances in conjunction with increased contact and communication with those on the island will help to break the chains of dependency that the Castro regime has traditionally used to oppress those inside Cuba," declared Francisco "Pepe" Hernandez, CANF President. "Increased purposeful travel fosters fraternal bonds among ordinary people that those in power in Cuba's totalitarian system will have difficulty in controlling. This goes hand-in-hand with the democratic demands that we are seeing from Cuba’s independent civil society."

"It is significant that these measures do not represent a concession to the Castro regime, but rather form part of a continuing series of unilateral measures that the US is taking which demonstrate a concern for the wellbeing of ordinary folks," added Hernandez. "Ultimately, change will come to Cuba from the activities of these same ordinary people inside the island. The more we can do to promote their self-reliance, their knowledge of the realities of the outside world, and their independence from the Castro regime, the better are their prospects for democratic change."

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