Bush to Let Americans Send Cellphones to Cuban Relatives

President Bush announced Wednesday that Americans would soon be allowed to send cellphones to relatives in Cuba, a policy shift he said was intended to force the country’s new leader, Raúl Castro, to make good on promised reforms by giving his people the freedom to communicate. “If the Cuban regime is serious about improving life for the Cuban people, it will take steps necessary to make these changes meaningful,” President Bush said during a White House ceremony attended by dozens of Cuban-Americans, including the families of imprisoned dissidents. “If the Cuban people can be trusted with mobile phones they should be trusted to speak freely in public.” The White House said the announcement did not represent a softening of the American embargo on trade with Cuba, enacted in the 1960s in an attempt to force a change of government by choking the Cuban economy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/washington/22prexy.html?ref=todayspaper
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