Back to the past

Are the Trump administration’s new stricter rules on travel and trade with Cuba a return to the past? The Cold War days. Likely. Is that a shame? Well, yes and no.

The new regulations announced last week cancel any direct U.S. financial transactions with 180 entities tied to the Cuban military and intelligence and security services. We can’t argue with the soundness of that move. It’s possible this correction of the flow of money from the U.S. to the Castro regime was needed.

Let’s be clear. In Cuba, for the most part, the government owns everything. Money goes into its pockets—not the people’s. It’s naive to think otherwise.

The editorial board has long supported the easing of relations with Cuba, but we have been disappointed at how little Cuba has bent in the way it treats its people.

So this all important issue—a re-examination of where the money injected into the island’s economy from the U.S. flows—is in order.

Cuban officials said last week the new U.S. rules will harm the Cuban economy and both its state and private sectors. But the change will also channel economic activity away from the military.

And wasn’t that the whole idea of the easing relations? So that the interaction would somehow bring change for the Cuban people?