Cuba solidarity campaigners warned of a “a major setback” on Friday with US President Donald Trump announced new travel restrictions — but kept diplomatic relations.
Anonymous White House officials leaked details of policy changes to the media ahead of Mr Trump’s official announcement in Miami’s Little Havana district.
The president spoke on Friday afternoon at Manuel Artime Theatre — named after the leader of the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion aimed at overthrowing Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government.
Mr Trump will not completely reverse the detente begun under his predecessor Barack Obama in December 2014 — as he promised Florida’s Cuban emigre community during last year’s election.
Full diplomatic relations established in 2015 will be maintained, while air and cruise lines can still carry tourists to the Caribbean nation.
And the “wet foot-dry foot” asylum policy that led thousands to risk their lives on people-trafficking boats will not be reinstated.
But he will ban US business dealings with the Enterprise Administration Group SA (Gaesa), run by the Cuban armed forces, which operates dozens of hotels, tour buses, restaurants and other facilities.
And it will reinstate rules, lifted during the Obama era, restricting visitors to package tours organised by US firms — unlike British tourists who can stay in bed-and-breakfast hotels and wander the streets of Havana.
Mr Trump will reportedly sell the restriction as cutting off funding to state institutions the US accuses of repressing “human rights.”
But critics said it would cripple Cuba’s booming small business sector.
Cuba Solidarity Campaign director Rob Miller said the measures “will be a major setback for US-Cuba relations and will condemn the Cuban people to continue suffering the consequences of the blockade” — which has not yet been formally lifted.
He said Mr Trump had “succumbed to pressure from hardline pro-blockade politicians” in the important electoral swing state.
Mr Miller said the choice of venue would “further antagonise relations between the two countries.”
The announcement “flies in the face of US public opinion” — with 65 per cent of respondents to a recent backing improved relations.
And he said it was a “huge disappointment to the people of Cuba who saw a glimmer of hope that the blockade may end” in 2014.
Anonymous White House officials leaked details of policy changes to the media ahead of Mr Trump’s official announcement in Miami’s Little Havana district.
The president spoke on Friday afternoon at Manuel Artime Theatre — named after the leader of the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion aimed at overthrowing Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government.
Mr Trump will not completely reverse the detente begun under his predecessor Barack Obama in December 2014 — as he promised Florida’s Cuban emigre community during last year’s election.
Full diplomatic relations established in 2015 will be maintained, while air and cruise lines can still carry tourists to the Caribbean nation.
And the “wet foot-dry foot” asylum policy that led thousands to risk their lives on people-trafficking boats will not be reinstated.
But he will ban US business dealings with the Enterprise Administration Group SA (Gaesa), run by the Cuban armed forces, which operates dozens of hotels, tour buses, restaurants and other facilities.
And it will reinstate rules, lifted during the Obama era, restricting visitors to package tours organised by US firms — unlike British tourists who can stay in bed-and-breakfast hotels and wander the streets of Havana.
Mr Trump will reportedly sell the restriction as cutting off funding to state institutions the US accuses of repressing “human rights.”
But critics said it would cripple Cuba’s booming small business sector.
Cuba Solidarity Campaign director Rob Miller said the measures “will be a major setback for US-Cuba relations and will condemn the Cuban people to continue suffering the consequences of the blockade” — which has not yet been formally lifted.
He said Mr Trump had “succumbed to pressure from hardline pro-blockade politicians” in the important electoral swing state.
Mr Miller said the choice of venue would “further antagonise relations between the two countries.”
The announcement “flies in the face of US public opinion” — with 65 per cent of respondents to a recent backing improved relations.
And he said it was a “huge disappointment to the people of Cuba who saw a glimmer of hope that the blockade may end” in 2014.