The list of authorized U.S. travel and remittance
services allowed to do business with Cuba has grown by 42 this year, U.S. Treasury Department records show.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control did not authorize any new services to do business with Cuba in 2009, El Nuevo Herald reported Thursday. But the Obama administration's more relaxed attitude toward the Communist-run Caribbean island nation that has been under U.S. trade sanctions for decades and a backlog of requests from businesses gave way to a jump in new
authorizations this year, a source told the newspaper.
"It's a little bit of both, policy and bureaucracy," the source said.
"Not only is this good for people who have been waiting for years to open their businesses, but it allows the U.S. government to address more pressing matters that affect the entire nation," said Vivian Mannerud, president of Airline Brokers Co. of Miami.
Last year, President Barack Obama allowed for Cuban-Americans to travel back and forth to Cuba as often as they wished. During the George W. Bush administration, travel to the island was restricted to one trip every three years.
As such, the average number of visits to Cuba per month more than doubled to 20,000, the newspaper said.