U.S. to reverse ban on phones to Cuba

Rule change follows loosening by Castro

By Deb Riechmann | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

11:32 PM EDT, May 21, 2008

WASHINGTON — President Bush announced Wednesday that people living in the United States soon will be allowed to send cell phones to Cubans in the island nation, a move that he hopes will push the communist regime to increase freedom of expression for Cuban citizens.

Addressing recent changes in Cuba, Bush said, "Cubans are now allowed to purchase mobile phones, DVD players and computers, and they have been told that they will be able to purchase toasters and other basic appliances in 2010."

"If the Cuban regime is serious about improving life for the Cuban people, it will take steps necessary to make these changes meaningful," Bush said at the White House as he marked Cuba's 106th anniversary of independence this week.

If the Cuban people can be trusted with mobile phones, "they should be trusted to speak freely in public," he said.

Dan Fisk, National Security Council senior director for Western hemisphere affairs, emphasized that the policy, which is to take effect in a few weeks, is not a loosening of the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba but a change in regulations that will allow cell phones to be in gift parcels that people living in this country can send to Cubans.

The Cuban government had no immediate comment on whether the onslaught of new cellular phones would make it through customs.

American cell phones with service contracts from the U.S. work on some parts of the island, but service is not always reliable.

Fisk said U.S. cell phones do work in Cuba, and people living in the United States can also pay for the U.S. cell service attached to the phones they send.

At the White House, Bush repeated his offer to license U.S. non-governmental organizations and religious groups to provide computers and access to the Internet to the Cuban people.

Since becoming president, Raul Castro has abolished bans that kept Cubans from owning cell phones in their own names, staying in tourist hotels and buying DVD players, computers and coveted kitchen appliances.