West Tampa, Florida - President Barack Obama has lifted the travel policy to the communist country of Cuba and, with the Tampa Bay area being having the fifth largest population of Cuban Americans in the country, many are reacting to the news.Students trying to get academic credit and churches traveling for religious reasons will now be allowed to go to the island.Americans will also be allowed to send as much as five hundred dollars every three months to Cuban citizens there.Plus more international airports will be allowed to offer charter service into Cuba, including Tampa International Airport.">West Tampa, Florida - President Barack Obama has lifted the travel policy to the communist country of Cuba and, with the Tampa Bay area being having the fifth largest population of Cuban Americans in the country, many are reacting to the news.Students trying to get academic credit and churches traveling for religious reasons will now be allowed to go to the island.Americans will also be allowed to send as much as five hundred dollars every three months to Cuban citizens there.Plus more international airports will be allowed to offer charter service into Cuba, including Tampa International Airport.">

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West Tampa, Florida - President Barack Obama has lifted the travel policy to the communist country of Cuba and, with the Tampa Bay area being having the fifth largest population of Cuban Americans in the country, many are reacting to the news.

Here's what the changes will mean:

Students trying to get academic credit and churches traveling for religious reasons will now be allowed to go to the island.

Americans will also be allowed to send as much as five hundred dollars every three months to Cuban citizens there.

Plus more international airports will be allowed to offer charter service into Cuba, including Tampa International Airport. Right now, only three airports are allowed to do so. Miami, Los Angeles and New York City currently offer charters to Cuba.

10 News caught up with Carmen Mendez eating Cuban food at La Teresita on West Columbus Street. The foreign language teacher at Brandon High School says even though she left Cuba with most of her family years ago, she's still excited about this latest development.

Mendez says, "Well, we came out as immigrants. We came with a suitcase with 45 pounds of weight and nothing else except what we were wearing."

She adds, "I think it is a wonderful opportunity for anyone who wishes to go back and the sense of missions - religious missionaries - or to establish educational ties and to exchange ideas. The ability to open up is a fantastic opportunity for the 21st century finally."

For Cuban Americans who have never had a chance to travel to the island many of them now say this is the perfect opportunity. Daysi Salinas' parents and grandparents are from Cuba but she's never been and would love to take her young son. Salinas says, "I would just like to kind of show him where our family heritage is from and where they came from and what they're going through, because my kids have everything, you know, over there they have to struggle a lot."

With flights to Cuba now being allowed out of Tampa International Airport, many say it's a move that will create jobs and pump money into our economy.

Salinas says, "There's lots of people traveling from New York, New Jersey, you know, other states coming to Florida to go to Miami in order to go to Cuba. Whereas now they have an alternate opportunity to come to Tampa instead of going to Miami."

The President's changes do not need congressional approval and will be put in place within two weeks.

Source: www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=168568


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