In a highly anticipated announcement on Friday in Miami’s Little Havana neighbourhood, United States President Donald Trump unveiled new policies towards Cuba, reversing steps former US President Barack Obama took to open up relations between the two countries.
Mr. Trump called his policies a total cancellation of Mr. Obama’s “completely one-sided deal” with the island nation, citing human rights violations as the major reason behind the rollbacks.
“[The Obama administration] made a deal with a government that spread violence and instability in the region and nothing they got — think about it, nothing they got. They fought for everything and we just didn’t fight hard enough, but now those days are over,” Mr. Trump said in a speech to a crowd that reportedly included supportive Cuban exiles. “We now hold the cards. The previous administration’s easing of restrictions of travel and trade does not help the Cuban people. They only enrich the Cuban regime.”
However, an NBC News fact-checking article reported that Mr. Trump’s policies aren’t as drastic as his rhetoric claims.
“[Mr. Trump’s new policy] restricts American travel — the privately-organised educational and cultural visits by Americans without specific permission from the government are out, [and] more restrictive group trips are back in — but it doesn’t stop airlines and cruise ships from going to the island as Obama first allowed,” NBC News reported. “Obama also ended the controversial ‘wet foot, dry foot’ policy that allowed Cubans who reached the shore of the US to seek permanent residency here, and Trump did not change that.”
SEE THE JUNE 22, 2017 EDITION FOR FULL COVERAGE.
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