World
Q&A: US Government Eases Cuba Travel Restrictions

In this Dec. 19, 2014 photo, tourists sunbathe as a vendor sells kites decorated with Cuba’s flag on a beach near Havana, Cuba. A new set of U.S. government regulations takes effect Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, severely loosening the 50-decade long travel and trade restrictions for Cuba. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan, File)
SCOTT MAYEROWITZ, AP Airlines Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are one step closer to being able to vacation in Cuba, but don’t pack your bathing suit and sunscreen just yet.
A new set of government regulations takes effect Friday, severely loosening travel and trade restrictions that have been in place for 54 years. The rules follow President Barack Obama’s announcement last month of a reestablishment of diplomatic relations with the communist island. Only Congress can fully remove the embargo but it is up to the administration to enforce — or turn a blind eye — to the travel ban.
Travel and hospitality companies are salivating at the chance to set up shop in Cuba. Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Hilton Worldwide, Marriott International and the Carnival Corp. have all expressed interest. United Airlines became the latest travel company to publicly express plans to enter Cuba, saying Thursday it wants to fly there from Newark, New Jersey and Houston, Texas if both governments allow it to do so.
Americans have long been drawn to Cuba for its close proximity, its warm climate and the taboo nature of visiting a country off-limits to U.S. citizens since the 1960s. Here’s a look at what the latest government rules mean for them.
Q: CAN U.S. CITIZENS VISIT CUBA?
A: The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control oversees travel to Cuba. There are 12 categories of people who are allowed to visit. They include close relatives of Cubans, academics, those traveling on official government business, those on humanitarian or religious missions, journalists and people on accredited cultural education programs.
Q: WHAT CHANGED?
A: The groups of people allowed to visit Cuba remain the same but they no longer need to apply for a license to travel.
Q: WHAT ABOUT EVERYBODY ELSE?
A: That’s fuzzier. It’s still illegal for Americans to visit Cuba if they don’t fit into one of those 12 groups, but without the need to apply for a license it could be impossible for the government to enforce such a restriction.
Q: HOW CAN I BUY A TICKET?
A: Until now, the government has issued licenses to tour operators who then help travelers obtain visas and sell spots on trips to Cuba. Many of them are mom and pop travel agencies in Florida, catering to Cuban-Americans. Others are large tour companies offering weeklong educational trips for $3,000 to nearly $8,000 a person. The new regulations allow travel agents and airlines to sell tickets without the need for a specific license from Office of Foreign Assets Control. That means it will be much easier to book a trip and prices should come down significantly.
Q: HOW DO U.S. TRAVELERS BUY GOODS IN CUBA?
A: Banks and credit card companies have been prohibited from doing business in Cuba. That gets lifted in these new rules. But don’t expect to see ATMs or businesses accepting Visa, MasterCard or American Express immediately. Large hotels are likely to be the first businesses to let travelers swipe to pay but mom and pop restaurants or local shops could take much longer. So travelers — in the near term — still need to bring a lot of cash.
Q: WHAT CAN AMERICANS BRING BACK?
A: Authorized visitors can bring home up to $400 worth of goods acquired in Cuba for personal use. This includes no more than $100 worth of alcohol or tobacco products.
Q: WILL THERE BE LIMITS TO THE NUMBER OF VISITORS?
A: Without the need for a license, there is no limit. However, Cuba only has so many hotel rooms and other necessary infrastructure to support tourism. In the short term, that will curtail the number of visitors.
Q: WHO FLIES FROM THE U.S. TO CUBA?
A: American Airlines, JetBlue and Sun Country offer charter flights to the Cuban cities of Havana, Holguin, Santa Clara and Cienfuegos. Until now, the only way onto those planes was through one of those travel agencies. That could quickly change. But don’t expect airlines to suddenly flood the market. Like all other route decisions, airlines need to see if there is a large enough market willing to pay high enough airfares. For instance, a Southwest Airlines spokesman said Thursday, “Cuba is a good future opportunity we are studying.” And Cuba is still a difficult destination to serve. JetBlue brings a mechanic along on each of its charter flights.
Q: ARE THERE OTHER WAYS FOR AMERICANS TO VISIT CUBA?
A: The Cuban government doesn’t prohibit Americans from visiting. So for years, intrepid travelers have broken the U.S. law by entering Cuba via Mexico or Canada and asking officials not to stamp their passports.
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Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Activism
Newsom, Pelosi Welcome Election of First American Pope; Call for Unity and Compassion
“In his first address, he reminded us that God loves each and every person,” said Newsom. “We trust that he will shepherd us through the best of the Church’s teachings: to respect human dignity, care for the poor, and wish for the common good of us all.” Newsom also expressed hope that the pontiff’s leadership would serve as a unifying force in a time of global instability.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media
Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom on May 8 issued a statement congratulating Pope Leo XIV on his historic election as the first American to lead the Catholic Church.
The announcement has drawn widespread reaction from U.S. leaders, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who called the moment spiritually significant and aligned with the values of service and social justice.
In their statement, the Newsoms expressed hope that the newly elected pope would guide the Church with a focus on compassion, dignity, and care for the most vulnerable. Newsom said he and the First Partner joined others around the world in celebrating the milestone and were encouraged by the pope’s first message.
“In his first address, he reminded us that God loves each and every person,” said Newsom. “We trust that he will shepherd us through the best of the Church’s teachings: to respect human dignity, care for the poor, and wish for the common good of us all.”
Newsom also expressed hope that the pontiff’s leadership would serve as a unifying force in a time of global instability.
“May he remind us that our better angels are not far away — they’re always within us, waiting to be heard,” he said.
Pelosi, a devout Catholic, also welcomed the pope’s election and noted his symbolic connection to earlier church leaders who championed workers’ rights and social equality.
“It is heartening that His Holiness continued the blessing that Pope Francis gave on Easter Sunday: ‘God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail,’” said Pelosi.
Activism
Retired Bay Area Journalist Finds Success in Paris with Black History Tours
In the late 90s, Stevenson finally realized her dream of living in Paris, now with her daughter. She started exploring the history of Africans in the city and would go on to teach others the same. Her business, which she named Black Paris Tours (BPT), received a significant boost when a family friend gave her a stack of cash and encouraged her to expand on the knowledge that she had only started to share with people she knew.

By Post Staff
There were two things Oakland-born, East Palo Alto-raised Ricki Stevenson always dreamed of:
- Going to New York as a newscaster to tell the true story of Blacks in America.
- Living and working in Paris one day.
Her dreams of life in Paris began when she was three years old and her mother, a former professional dancer, took her to see Josephine Baker perform. She was 11 when her parents took her to the Stanford University campus to meet James Baldwin, who was speaking about his book, “The Fire Next Time.” Ricki says that’s when she knew she’d one day live in Paris, “the city of light!”
But before that would ever happen, she had a tumultuous career as a newscaster across the country that was inspired by her family’s history.
Stevenson recalls marching with Cesar Chavez as he fought for labor rights for farm workers in California.
“Are we Mexican too?” she asked her parents. “No, but we will fight for everyone’s human rights,” they responded to her.
Ironically, Ricki’s paternal family roots went back to Greenwood, Oklahoma, infamous for the 1921 bombing of Black Wall Street. A time when Black people had oil wells, banks, and a thriving business community.
This background would propel her into a 25-year journalism career that gave her the opportunity to interview greats like President Jimmy Carter, PLO leader Yassir Arafat, James Baldwin, Rev. Jesse Jackson, UN Ambassador Andrew Young, Miriam Makeba, and the leaders of South African liberation movements.
A job offer from KCBS radio brought her back to the Bay Area in the 1980s. Then came the switch to TV when she was hired as a Silicon Valley business reporter with KSTS TV, working at the first Black-owned television station in northern CA (created and owned by John Douglas). Along the way, Stevenson worked as an entertainment reporter with BET; coproduced, with her disc jockey brother Isaac, a Bay Area show called “Magic Number Video;” lived in Saudi Arabia; worked as an international travel reporter with News Travel Network; and worked at KRON TV a news anchor and talk show host.
In 1997, Stevenson realized her dream of living in Paris with her young daughter, Dedie. She started exploring the history of Africans in the city and would go on to teach others the same. Her business, which she named Black Paris Tours (BPT), received a significant boost when a family friend, Admiral Robert Toney put a chunk of money in her hand. He said, “Ricki, my wife and I have been coming to Paris for 20 years, but in just two days with you and Dedie, we’ve learned and seen more than we ever did before.”
Years after BPT took off, Ricki met Nawo Carol Crawford and Miguel Overton Guerra, who she recruited as senior scholar guides for Black Paris Tours.
Guerra says he is proud of his work with Black Paris Tours in that it provides a wealth of information about the rich legacy of African and African American history and influence in Paris and Europe.
“I tend to have a feeling for history always being a means of a reference point backwards … you start to understand the history, that it isn’t just the United States, that it began with African people,” Guerra says.
He said that it’s been a pleasure to watch people learn something they didn’t know before and to take them through the city to key points in Black history, like hangout spots for writers like Baldwin and Richard Wright, restaurants in the busiest parts of Paris, the home of Josephine Baker and so much more.
Although the tours are open to all, Guerra hopes that those of African descent from all over the world can embrace that they don’t have to just stay where they are because movies and media have portrayed cities like Paris to be only white, it’s multicultural and accepting to all.
“We’ve been here, and we’ve been there, going way back when. And we shouldn’t be considered or consider ourselves to be strangers in any place that we go to,” he said.
Stevenson notes they’ve had 150,000 people take their tour over the years, with notables like former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Smokey Robinson, Steve Harvey, Miriam Makeba, and more.
Friends and former media colleagues of Stevenson compliment the BPT crew on their knowledge of the city and their ability to always keep it interesting.
“He [Guerra] just had a deep, deep wealth of knowledge and he was constantly supplanting information with historical facts and the like. I love that it was demonstrating and showing how Black people have thrived in Paris or contributed to the culture in Paris,” Candice Francis said.
She toured in the summer of 2022 and stated that in the two weeks that they visited Paris, BPT was the highlight of her trip. She shared that she was proud of Stevenson and the life she’d managed to manifest and build for herself.
“Even if you’re visiting Paris for the tenth time, if you haven’t taken the tour, then by all means, take it,” Francis emphasized.
Magaly Muñoz, Gay Plair and Paul Cobb also contributed to this story. You can book your own adventure with Black Paris Tours at www.blackparistour.com.
Activism
COMMENTARY: Will a Dictator’s Loss Change Trump’s Tune?
What’s happened in Syria has the potential of reshaping the politics of the entire Middle East. The U.S. can’t afford to sit back and do nothing. Now is the time to exert peaceful, diplomatic influence on how Syria maintains stability and goes forward with a new democracy.

By Emil Guillermo
In our polarized country, half of America can’t wait, while many of us still wonder, “where’s Kamala?”
I hope President-elect Trump — who famously said during the campaign that he’d be a dictator on day one — eats his words.
Dictators aren’t doing so well these days.
Last weekend, the dictator Bashar al-Assad was run out of Syria and sought exile with his puppet master/dictator Vladimir Putin of Russia. In just about two weeks, a coalition of rebels applied enough pressure to end a family regime in Syria that lasted 50 years.
al-Assad’s wealthy family dictatorship plundered Syria and ruled in terror.
It sounds all too familiar to Filipino Americans, many of whom came to the U.S. fleeing the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
al-Assad’s end was different from the Filipinos who forged a peaceful People Power movement that chased the Marcos family to Hawaii where they sought refuge from their U.S. puppet handlers.
But as in Manila, there was cheering on the streets of Syria. Men, women, and children. Christian, Muslims, different sects and ethnicities, all united against al-Assad.
al-Assad has been described as a genocidal narco-trafficking tyrant, whose friends were America’s biggest enemies, Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia, said Mouaz Moustafa, the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, on CNN.
Moustafa said it was amazing that there would be no more Russian airstrikes, no more al-Assad gulags torturing civilians. “To see good triumph over evil is an amazing thing,” he added.
But last weekend has some trickle down.
Consider that we are talking about al-Assad, the one Tulsi Gabbard consorted with and hyped to her colleagues when she was in Congress. Now Assad has been shamed into exile with his puppet master Russia, and Gabbard wants to be the U.S. director of national security? Given her wrongheaded judgment on al-Assad, can she be trusted with any national secrets?
It’s still not over in Syria, as now there will be a scramble to see what kind of governing democracy emerges.
Predictably, Donald Trump has said, “The United States should have nothing to do with it. This is not our fight. Let it play out. Do not get involved.”
Nouveau isolationism?
What’s happened in Syria has the potential of reshaping the politics of the entire Middle East. The U.S. can’t afford to sit back and do nothing. Now is the time to exert peaceful, diplomatic influence on how Syria maintains stability and goes forward with a new democracy.
Overall, the ouster of the dictator should give Trump pause.
If by nominating MAGA loyalists like Gabbard, Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel, Trump’s testing the evolution to strongman rule in the U.S., he should consider what happened before last weekend.
In South Korea, a weak president tried to declare martial law and was voted down by Parliament. That’s a faux strongman.
Let’s hope Trump learns a lesson from the week’s news.
The next president sets the tone for a politics that’s already toxic.
He needs to remember the joy in Syria this week when an autocrat was dumped in the name of freedom and democracy.
About the Author
Emil Guillermo is an award-winning Bay Area journalist. His commentaries are on YouTube.com/@emilamok1. Or join him at www.patreon.com/emilamok
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