Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Chairman of its Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Global Narcotics Affairs, released the following statement on the Obama Administration’s Cuba Policy.  Dodd is an original co-sponsor of the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, which would lift travel restrictions on all Americans wishing to travel to Cuba.

“I applaud the Obama Administration’s decision to ease restrictions on Cuban-Americans travelling to Cuba to visit their family and sending remittances to support their loved ones.  Cuban-Americans should be free to visit and support their family members.  This is an important first step towards opening people-to-people contact between the United States and Cuba.

“I hope to see more positive changes in US policy towards Cuba in the comings months, and encourage the Obama Administration to soon lift the remaining travel and remittance restrictions on all Americans.  For more than four decades, we have maintained an isolationist policy toward Cuba, sacrificing Americans’ freedom to travel and to trade.  This approach has not only failed to achieve its stated objectives; by depriving the Cuban people of the benefit of interaction with the American people, it has inhibited a peaceful and democratic transition.

“I have long believed that the United States’ most potent weapon against totalitarianism is the influence of ordinary American citizens.  They are some of the best ambassadors we have, and the free exchange of ideas between Americans and Cubans is an important way to encourage democracy and build bridges between our citizens and other nations, including Cuba.”

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