At a time when socialist mismanagement has put Cuba on the ropes, the Obama administration has decided to unleash a new wave of U.S. visits and remittances to tide the dictatorship over. For Castro, it’s pennies from heaven.

Late last Friday, the Obama administration said it would ease restrictions on contacts and cash with Cuba in about three weeks.

Loosely defined student and church groups would be able to travel to the communist country, and any American would be able to remit up to $2,000 per year to Cuba, with few restrictions. Until now, only exiles could make such visits and send limited transfers. Now, anyone can.

The move largely restores relations to the Clinton-era status quo of 1996. But it sends a lousy message to U.S. allies like Colombia — whose free-trade pact is treated contemptuously — and, more to the point, amounts to a big gift to the Castro regime just when it needs one.

If Obama’s past is any indication, he probably did it to please supporters on the left, who’ve been angry with him lately. Some of the biggest beneficiaries of the travel loosening are likely to be radical pro-Castro groups that earn cash on “reality tours.” Global Exchange, for instance, led by wealthy Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, sends leftists to Cuba to sing the regime’s praises. Cuba is picky about who gets in, and these groups will have the edge.

With ObamaCare under fire, it might even serve Obama’s agenda to have such groups singing the praises of socialized medicine as better than the U.S. alternative.

But the biggest beneficiary of all will be Fidel Castro.

It’s he who will end up with the extra money, which is already about $2 billion a year. Anyone sending remittances to Cuba pays a 20% tax off the top, and often a 10% exchange fee. Cubans who buy something with the cash in government-owned stores pay other fees.

In the end, the regime gets all the money, notes prominent Cuban-American Val Prieto, who blogs at Babalu.

“It’s like going to the casino,” Prieto said. “The odds favor the house.”

Unlike visits, the remittances may be more policy than politics. Mauricio Claver-Carone, a top lobbyist at the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC in Washington, believes that based on recent Defense Department and State Department position papers, the White House may be bailing out Castro because it fears Cuba may collapse on its watch.

Source: Investors.com