Trump aims to roll back Obama’s Cuba policies
Trump aims to roll back Obama’s Cuba policies
By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times - Wednesday, June 14, 2017
President Trump is expected to announce a rollback of his predecessor’s detente with Cuba during a visit Friday to Miami, likely to include a reimposition of U.S. travel restrictions to the communist island as well as a limiting of business interactions between American companies and entities controlled by the Cuban military.
The changes are expected to be in line with those sought by Cuba hard-liners on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Marco Rubio, an influential Florida Republican on the Senate intelligence committee whom Mr. Trump seeks to gain as an ally.
Administration officials declined to comment on whether Friday’s speech will be a culmination of a months long review of Cuba policy, which has been a subject of speculation since Mr. Trump’s advisers signaled in November that he would undo Mr. Obama’s detente unless the Cuban government moved swiftly to address human rights abuses and loosen restrictions on freedom of speech.
Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week that “Cuba has failed” to do that, and suggested impending policy changes will focus on restricting relationships between U.S. and Cuban businesses that “inadvertently or directly” support what “continues to be a very oppressive regime.”
Analysts say that could mean only minor adjustments to the openings put in place in 2014 by the Obama administration, which sought to thaw hostility that had persisted between Washington and Havana since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
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