President George W. Bush on Wednesday announced a change in US policy to allow Americans to send cellphones to relatives in Cuba after an easing of restrictions on phone ownership there.
The administration was quick to note the move was not an easing of a decades-old US embargo against the island nation, as Bush slammed the "personal despotism of Fidel and Raul Casto" and reiterated calls for more substantial reform.
"Since Raul is allowing Cubans to own mobile phones for the first time, we are going to change our regulations to allow Americans to send mobile phones to family members in Cuba," Bush told a White House gathering which included US lawmakers and relatives of Cuban political prisoners.
"If Raul is serious about his so-called reforms, he will allow these phones to reach the Cuban people," Bush said, referring to Cuban leader Raul Castro, brother of revolutionary icon Fidel Castro, 81, who relinquished power in February almost 50 years as president.
Raul Castro, 76, in one of a series of reforms, last month eased restrictions on mobile phone ownership in Cuba. State telecoms company Etecsa in April predicted 1.4 million new mobile service contracts in the next five years on the island of some 11 million people.
Bush's announcement at a White House ceremony came on the 106th anniversary of the Caribbean island's independence from the United States, where he called on Havana to release some 200 political prisoners languishing in Cuba's "tropical gulag." "Cuba's society is crumbling after decades of neglect under the Castros," he said.
"If the Cuban regime is serious about improving life for the Cuban people, it will take steps necessary to make these changes meaningful." The president said he was launching the inaugural "day of solidarity with the Cuban people," and said he hoped Washington would continue to mark the day each year "until Cuba's freedom."
US officials stressed that with the cellphones announcement Bush was not abandoning the decades-old US trade embargo against Havana, but modifying a regulation that allows Americans to send certain gifts to residents of the island nation.