Rollback of Cuba policy is in works
But Trump will face a tough time unwinding Obama’s deal with the island nation.
HAVANA — President Obama’s 2014 easing of U.S. policy toward Cuba helped funnel American travel dollars into military-linked tourism conglomerates even as state security agents waged a fierce crackdown on dissent.
The rapprochement also poured hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. spending into privately owned businesses on the island, supercharging the growth of an entrepreneurial middle class independent of the communist state. It opened a new market for American corporations, with JetBlue and American Airlines operating from gleaming new Havana offices and tens of thousands of private bedand-breakfasts listed on Airbnb.
Internet access became an affordable reality for hundreds of thousands of Cubans as President Raul Castro met a pledge to Obama and opened nearly 400 public Wi-Fi access points across the country. Longtime enemies separated by 90 miles of ocean struck agreements to cooperate on issues such as human trafficking and oil spills.
This is the complex scenario facing President Trump as Cuban American legislators and lobbyists pressure him to fulfill his campaign promise to undo Obama’s deal with Cuba.
The administration is close to announcing a new policy that would prohibit business with the Cuban military while maintaining the full diplomatic relations restored by Obama, according to a Trump administration official and a person involved in the ongoing policy review.
“As the president has said, the current Cuba policy is a bad deal. It does not do enough to support human rights in Cuba,” White House spokesman Michael Short said. “We anticipate an announcement in the coming weeks.”
Still under debate: new restrictions on American leisure travel to Cuba, which has more than tripled since Obama’s announcement, to nearly 300,000 last year.
Anti-Castro Cuban Americans hate the idea of U.S. travelers enjoying mojitos in the police state that drove exiles from their homes and businesses.
Tourism to Cuba remains barred by U.S. law, and American travelers to Cuba still must fall into one of 12 categories of justification for their travel, including religious and educational activities meant to bring the traveler into contact with Cuban people.
When Obama took office, “people-to-people” travelers could see the country only as part of organized tours — a measure meant to guarantee that Americans experienced educational activities such as visits to printing workshops or organic farmers markets.
In reality, the tour requirement guaranteed that American travelers spent virtually every second of their time in Cuba under the direct control of the government, which requires U.S. tour operators to use government tour buses and guides and stay almost entirely in state-run hotels.
Obama eliminated that requirement and opened the door for tens of thousands of travelers to book their own independent trips to Cuba.
Opponents of Obama’s rollback say that has allowed many to engage in prohibited tourism, spending leisure days at the beach and all-inclusive resorts.
But individual travel has also served as rocket fuel for Cuba’s burgeoning private sector. Tens of thousands of Americans are booking direct f lights on U.S. airlines to Havana, reserving private lodging through Airbnb and spending thousands of dollars on private guides, taxis and restaurants.
A former industrial engineer, 31-year-old Adyarin Ruiz runs a four-bedroom bed-and-breakfast in a restored section of Old Havana that’s seeing an increasing number of Americans willing to pay up to $100 a night in a country where state salaries average $25 a month.
“Over the last two years, since relations with the U.S. were restored, I’ve seen the growth in American tourism,” Ruiz said.
There are also U.S. jobs dependent on travel to Cuba. The U.S. pro-detente group Engage Cuba released a study Thursday asserting that a rollback of Obama’s Cuba policy would cost airlines and cruise lines $3.5 billion over the next four years and lead to the loss of 10,154 travel jobs.