TRUMP TO UNVEIL CUBA POLICY SHIFTS
Source expects mostly smaller changes, not full reversal of Obama moves
President Trump will travel to the Cuban- American enclave of Miami on Friday to unveil changes to U. S. policy on Cuba, and the modifications are expected to reverse some of the openings President Obama enacted in 2014.
Trump vowed during his presidential campaign to completely terminate Obama’s opening, which re- established diplomatic relations between the Cold War foes after more than 50 years of isolation. Over the following two years, the Obama administration created new openings for Americans to travel to the long- isolated island, for U. S. businesses to operate there and for Cubans to visit the U. S.
A government official briefed on Trump’s changes who spoke on condition of anonymity didn’t expect Trump to completely shut off the opening.
The embassies that were reopened in Havana and Washington will likely remain open, and the governments are expected to continue working on a variety of diplomatic issues. Cuba experts believe Trump will focus on smaller changes that will make it more difficult for Americans to travel there and for U. S. businesses to do business directly with the Cuban government.
Whatever the changes look like, it will be a departure from Obama’s strategy of engagement. His administration argued that 50 years of diplomatic isolation had done nothing to end the rule of Fidel Castro, who died in November, and that engaging and empowering Cuban citizens was a more effective way of getting the communist government to change.
Obama punctuated his opening by becoming the first sitting U. S. president to visit the island in nearly a century, a trip that featured a speech carried live across Cuba, a meeting with dissident leaders and a joint appearance at a baseball game with Cuban President Raúl Castro.
Trump repeatedly bashed Obama’s efforts to work more closely with Cuba, saying he could have gotten a better deal for the U. S. and vowing to renegotiate the deal. Critics of Obma’s opening, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R- Fla., and Rep. Mario Diaz- Balart, R- Fla., both Cuban- Americans, have pushed Trump to shut it back down, arguing that the U. S. got nothing in return for its efforts and that Cuba continues to detain political prisoners.