US House trying to block Obama´s Cuba Policy

In what has been considered a defiance of the Cuba rapprochement policy undertaken by President Barack Obama, the US House of Representatives adopted a clause within the 2016 Transportation budget to keep the Cuba-travel ban.

The initiative, which is part of an offensive by ultra-right sectors to torpedo, from Capitol Hill, the thaw of relations between Washington and Havana, was adopted by the Republican-dominated House with only 25 democrats in favor, but by large republican majority.

The move, sponsored by Republican legislator for Florida Mario Diaz-Balart, a tough enemy of the normalization of US-Cuba relations, would block the measures announced in January to expand travel permits and commercial flights to Cuba.

However, the White House said that Obama is willing to veto that proposal, which still have to go to the Senate. The Neo-cons and anti-Cuba circles also propose a restriction of funds to block the opening of embassies in both countries.

The House also adopted another initiative that would prohibit trading with certain Cuban companies, but those who sponsor these and other anti-Cuba moves know well that they are issues relevant to US foreign policy, which are mostly part of the prerogatives of the government.

Meanwhile, many US Congress people however maintain a quite different view on bilateral relations with Cuba as they say that there is bi-partisan consensus in favor of the lifting of the over-50-year US economic, commercial and financial blockade of the island.