President Trump rolls back some of Obama's Cuba policy

By Steve Holland

President Donald Trump has ordered tighter restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba and a clampdown on US business dealings with the Caribbean island’s military.

The controversial president told a crowd in Miami that he was cancelling former President Barack Obama's "terrible and misguided deal" with Havana.

"The government of Cuba denounces the new measures toughening the embargo," Cuban state TV said.

Laying out his new Cuba policy, Trump signed a presidential directive rolling back parts of Obama’s historic opening to the Communist-ruled country after a 2014 diplomatic breakthrough between the two former Cold War foes.

But Trump left in place many of Obama’s changes, including the reopened US embassy in Havana, even as he sought to show he was making good on a campaign promise to take a tougher line against Cuba, especially over its human rights record.

"We will not be silent in the face of communist oppression any longer," Trump told a cheering crowd in Miami’s Cuban-American enclave of Little Havana, including Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who helped forge the new restrictions on Cuba.

"Effective immediately, I am cancelling the last administration's completely one-sided deal with Cuba," Trump declared as he made a full-throated assault on the government of Cuban President Raul Castro.

[caption id="attachment_2891" align="aligncenter" width="500"] US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in 2015. © REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque[/caption]

Cuba later denounced the move as a setback in U.S.-Cuban relations, saying Trump had been badly advised and was resorting to "coercive methods of the past" that were doomed to fail. The government remained willing to engage in "respectful dialogue," it said in a statement.

Trump’s revised approach calls for stricter enforcement of a longtime ban on Americans going to Cuba as tourists, and seeks to prevent US dollars from being used to fund what the Trump administration sees as a repressive military-dominated government.

But, facing pressure from US businesses and even some fellow Republicans to avoid turning back the clock completely in relations with Cuba, the president chose to leave intact some of his Democratic predecessor's steps toward normalisation.

‘Military monopoly’

The new policy bans most US business transactions with the Armed Forces Business Enterprises Group, a Cuban conglomerate involved in all sectors of the economy.

But it makes some exceptions, including for air and sea travel, according to US officials. This will essentially shield US airlines and cruise lines serving the island.

"We do not want US dollars to prop up a military monopoly that exploits and abuses the citizens of Cuba," Trump said, pledging that US sanctions would not be lifted until Cuba frees political prisoners and holds free elections.

While the changes are far-reaching, they appear to be less sweeping than many US pro-engagement advocates had feared.

Trump based his partial reversal of Obama’s Cuba measures largely on human rights grounds.

His critics, however, have questioned why his administration is now singling out Cuba for human rights abuses but downplaying the issue in other parts of the world, including Saudi Arabia, a close US ally Trump visited last month where political parties and protests are banned.

Some of Obama’s policies left

Trump, however, stopped short of breaking diplomatic relations restored in 2015 after more than five decades of hostilities.

He also will not cut off recently resumed direct US-Cuba commercial flights or cruise-ship travel, though his more restrictive policy seems certain to dampen new economic ties overall.

The administration, according to one White House official, has no intention of “disrupting” existing business ventures such as one struck under Obama by Starwood Hotels Inc, which is owned by Marriott International Inc, to manage a historic Havana hotel.

Nor does Trump plan to reinstate limits that Obama lifted on the amount of the island’s coveted rum and cigars that Americans can bring home for personal use.

Still, it will be the latest attempt by Trump to overturn parts of Obama's presidential legacy. He has already pulled the United States out of a major international climate treaty and is trying to scrap his predecessor's landmark healthcare program.

[caption id="attachment_2887" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Trump listens to Cuban violinist Luis Haza play the US National Anthem at the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami, Florida. ©REUTERS/Carlos Barria[/caption]

When Obama announced the detente in 2014, he said that decades of US efforts to achieve change in Cuba by isolating the island had failed and it was time to try a new approach.

Critics of the rapprochement said Obama was giving too much away without extracting concessions from the Cuban government. Castro's government has clearly stated it does not intend to change its one-party political system.

Trump aides say Obama’s efforts amounted to "appeasement" and have done nothing to advance political freedoms in Cuba, while benefiting the Cuban government financially.

"It's hard to think of a policy that makes less sense than the prior administration's terrible and misguided deal with the Castro regime," Trump said.

International human rights groups say, however, that renewed U.S. efforts to isolate the island could worsen the situation by empowering Cuban hard-liners.