Obama Lifting Restrictions in Cuba
A new poll shows most Cuban-Americans in Florida favor lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Fifty-five percent of participants in the poll, which signals hope for better U.S.-Cuba relations, said they oppose continuing the embargo that the United States has maintained against the communist-ruled island for nearly five decades.
The poll was conducted by Florida International University shortly after the U.S. presidential election and marks the first, since it began surveying attitudes toward Cuba in 1991, in which a majority of Cuban-Americans opposed the trade ban.
Miami’s 650,000 Cuban exiles account for more than a quarter of the population of the greater Miami area, making the city a bastion of staunch anti-Castro sentiment that has long wielded a disproportionate influence over U.S. policy toward Cuba.
The hard-liners are fading in the face of a changing exile community, however, and analysts say younger Cuban-Americans, in particular, are more concerned with domestic issues like the U.S. economy than they are with the political situation in Cuba.
“The (poll) result demonstrates a continuing shift in attitudes by Cuban-Americans and reflects a generational rift between those Cuban-Americans who arrived in the U.S. in the 1960s and those who came to the U.S. in the 1980s or later,” FIU said in a statement.
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has stopped short of saying he supports lifting the embargo against Cuba, which Washington has repeatedly vowed to enforce until Cuba’s government releases political prisoners, grants basic freedoms and schedules internationally monitored elections.
But Obama has said he would end the restrictions on travel to Cuba by Cuban-Americans imposed by President George W. Bush to toughen the embargo in 2004, and 66 percent of those polled by FIU said they support ending the travel restrictions too.
Obama has also said he favors talks or direct diplomacy with the new Cuban government of President Raul Castro, who formally took over from his ailing brother earlier this year.
President Dwight Eisenhower severed relations with Havana in 1961, two years after Fidel Castro seized power in an armed revolution that toppled a U.S. backed dictator.
Karen
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
France prepares for a massive strike across all transports on September 18
Turkish tourism stalls due to soaring prices for accommodation and food
CCS Insight: eSIMs ready to take the travel world by storm
Germany new European Entry/Exit System limited to a single airport on October 12, 2025
Airlines suspend Madagascar services following unrest and army revolt