U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a memorandum that will impose stricter restrictions on Cuba.
The move aims to reverse some measures proposed by the Biden administration, thereby reducing the pressure on the United States on communist countries.
The White House said it would enforce more stringently the existing ban on American tourists for U.S. visitors and oppose calls from international organizations such as the United Nations to end the U.S. economic embargo in Caribbean countries.
Cuba Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said the memorandum “strengthening the aggression and economic blockade that punishes the entire Cuban people and is a major obstacle to our development”.
In the fact sheet published on its websiteThe White House said it would end “the economic practice at the expense of the Cuban people, making the Cuban government, military, intelligence or security agencies good for the Cuban government.”
U.S. citizens have been banned from traveling to Cuba for only tourism activities, but there are 12 types of travel permitted, including family and educational visits, humanitarian programs and sports competitions.
The new memorandum says compliance with existing policies will be carried out through routine audits and “mandatory records of all travel-related transactions for at least five years”.
It also bans U.S. citizens from doing business with Gaesa, a business run by the Cuban army that owns many Cuban hotels.
Tourism is one of the main sources of Cuban government coins, but as the shortages on the Caribbean islands became worse and the number of tourists decreased, and several national electricity put it into darkness.
The memorandum stressed that President Trump is “committed to cultivating a free and democratic Cuba to address the long-standing suffering of the Cuban people under the Communist regime.”
The policies listed in the document were built upon Trump’s first term and in recent months.
Shortly after Trump was sworn in, Trump resumed Cuba’s designation as a sponsor of terrorism, and then-President Joe Biden had lifted terrorism a few days ago.
Trump and his iron fist policy toward Cuba have strong support from the Cuban-American community in the United States.
But the Trump administration’s decision to end Cubans as well as Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans has been generally disappointed with many Cuban Americans.
