The White House’s new policies will attempt to steer money away from the Cuban regime, which the Trump administration says continues to oppress its own people.
President Donald Trump slammed the Castro regime on Friday for its human rights record, as his administration unveiled policy that seeks to empower Cuban people.
Trump pledged to “expose the crimes of the Castro regime” and support Cubans. He argued that freedom for Cubans who would be in the interests of Americans.
“For nearly six decades, the Cuban people have suffered under communist domination, ” Trump said in Miami on Friday. “To this day, Cuba is ruled by the same people who killed tens of thousands of their own citizens, who sought to spread their repressive and failed ideology throughout our hemisphere and who once tried to host enemy nuclear weapons 90 miles from our shores.”
“With God’s help, a free Cuba is what we will soon achieve, ” Trump said.
The White House’s new Cuba policy directs the Treasury Department to end a common method of visiting the communist nation.
The new measures will end individual people-to-people travel, according to a document released ahead of Trump’s remarks in Miami.
Tourism is technically banned under the embargo, but under the Obama administration, relaxed regulations allowed Americans to visit Cuba under people-to-people travel. Trump’s policy restricts this form of travel to Cuba for individuals. Americans pursuing this type of travel would have to go in groups, the official said.
The document, published by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, emphasizes that the changes announced Friday will not take effect until new regulations are issued .
In a passionate speech ahead of Trump’s, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fl., criticized Barack Obama’s approach to U. S.-Cuba relations.
“A year and a half ago a president, an American president landed in Havana to outstretch his hand to a regime. Today, a new president lands in Miami to reach out his hand to the people of Cuba, ” Rubio said.
Last year, Obama became the first U. S. president to visit the island in 88 years.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fl., lauded the policy changes, saying that Trump has fulfilled a campaign promise he made in Miami. In 2016, then-candidate Trump called for a reversal of Obama’s normalization of Cuba policy, saying he would demand religious and political freedom for the Cuban people as well as the release of political prisoners.
“U. S. policy will ensure that the Cuban military — which oppresses the Cuban people and it beats the Cuban people through its thugs and imprisons political activists and spies on its neighbors — they can no longer benefit from increased trade and travel, ” said Diaz-Balart.
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