Obama to Announce Measures over Cuba-US Relations

US President Barack Obama will announce new executive measures next month aimed at improving relations with Cuba, according to White House officials cited by The New York Times.

The measures will ease the economic blockade imposed on the island since 1962, according to the sources, PL news agency reported.

The White House officials said that Obama will use his executive power to lift the Cuba-Travel ban, and to reestablish trade and financial activity.

Obama´s measures are only the beginning of what some White House officials and foreign policy experts describe as a large agenda of change that the president can implement to improve commercial and diplomatic links with Havana.

The Department of the Treasury will issue a series of regulations to facilitate agricultural exports to Cuba and establish banking relations, while the Department of Commerce will favor actions for US companies to export construction and telecommunication equipment, among other investment.

The New York Times also confirmed that the State Department began a revision that could withdraw Cuba from the list of states sponsors of international terrorism.

Late in January high-level state department officials will come to Cuba to discuss the reestablishment of diplomatic relations and migration issues.

Other measures aimed at lifting obstacles hindering the travel to Cuba of US citizens and their financial transactions on the island. The Office of Foreign Assets Control  will put down the special licenses required from US citizens eligible to make family visits in Cuba, professional, religious, cultural or humanitarian programs on the island.

The amount of quarter remittances will be increased from 500 to 2 thousand dollars.

Many of these measures by Obama constitute a clear defiance to his opponents in Congress with regards to the Cuba issue.