Cuba rejects US restrictions
HAVANA: Cuba has rejected outright new US restrictions that were due to take effect yesterday, describing them as confirming an “upsurge” of the blockade imposed by Washington since 1962.
Cuba’s top diplomat for the Americas, Josefina Vidal, said during a press conference on Wednesday that the new measures to prevent US trade with and travel to the Caribbean island were “arbitrary”.
Vidal said the White House decision, part of President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to overturn rapprochement efforts initiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama, amounted to an “upsurge” of economic, commercial and financial sanctions.
Vidal stressed that the Cuban government considered the measures “a serious setback in relations between the two countries”.
Vidal condemned the modifications to people-to-people exchange regulations, as politically motivated, and pointed to the decision to include a soft-drinks factory on the blacklist.
The US State, Commerce and Treasury departments announced the adoption of “co-ordinated actions” to implement the document signed by Trump on June 16 in Miami.
The document, which introduced additional obstacles to business between the US and Cuba, banned Americans from making transactions with more than 180 entities linked to the Caribbean nation’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, along with its security and intelligence services.