TRUMP GOES BACK ON USCUBA DEAL
US PRESIDENT CANCELS OBAMA’S POLICY, PUTS CURBS ON TRAVEL, BIZ
MIAMI: US President Donald Trump reversed critical elements of his predecessor Barack Obama’s Cuba policy to re-impose restrictions on travel and commerce, but did not go as far as to break diplomatic ties with the island nation which were restored in 2015.
“Effective immediately, I am cancelling the last administration’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba,” Trump told a gathering of Cuban Americans in Miami, on Friday. He later added he had delivered on a campaign promise.
An executive order he signed after his speech prohibits self-directed, individual travel to Cuba but allowed Americans to travel in groups for educational or professional purposes. And Americans of Cuban descent will be free to travel to visit relatives and send remittances.
American companies will be prohibited from conducting business with entities controlled by the Cuban military and intelligence services, which is most of the tiny nation. But contacts with smaller, individually run businesses will be exempted.
“We do not want US dollars to prop up a military monopoly that exploits and abuses the citizens of Cuba,” Trump said, adding, “Our new policy begins with strictly enforcing US law. We will not lift sanctions on the Cuban regime until all political prisoners are freed, freedoms of assembly and expression are respected, all political parties are legalised, and free and internationally supervised elections are scheduled.”
This was a notable shift for Trump, who has been leery of using American power to push human rights as an issue, recently telling leaders in Riyadh, “We are not here to lecture — we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship.”
But for all the harsh rhetoric and bombast of another election promise fulfilled and another Obama policy rolled back, the president did not shut the door on Cuba entirely. The embassies will remain open “in the hope that our countries can forge a much stronger and better path”.
Ben Rhodes, the architect of President Obama’s Cuba opening, live-tweeted during Trump’s remarks, and noted, “No matter what Trump says he’s not reversing dip (diplomatic) relations, embassies, wet foot dry foot (allowing in fleeing Cubans), reg (regulation) changes. Enough to do damage but not undoing.”
Obama had announced the resumption of ties with Cuba in 2015, arguing that engaging with the nation might work better than the policy of isolation.
It was opposed by hardliners in the US, mostly Cuban Americans such as Senators Marco Rubio, a Republican, and Robert Menendez, a Democrat.
Rubio was in the audience for Trump’s speech on Friday. “A year and a half ago, a president, an American president, landed in Havana, to outstretch his hand to a regime,” Rubio said, referring to Obama’s visit in March 2016. “Today,” he said, “a new president lands in Miami to reach out his hand to the people of Cuba.”