Trump will on Friday announce a plan to tighten rules on Americans traveling to Communist-run Cuba and significantly restrict US firms from doing business with Cuban enterprises controlled by the military, White House officials said.
The policy changes announced were partial, but Trump tightened rules for American nationals traveling to Cuba, banned ties with a military-run tourism firm and reaffirmed the existing U.S. trade embargo.
The Castro government is certain to reject Trump's list of demands, which includes releasing political prisoners, halting what the US says is abuse of dissidents and allowing greater freedom of expression.
Under the new restrictions, Americans travelling to Cuba can not stay in hotels connected to the Cuban military.
Trump said his administration will expose the crimes of the Castro regime and stand with the Cuban people in their struggle for freedom.
"The Government of Cuba denounces the new measures of hardening the blockade which are doomed to fail as it has been proven in the past", the official statement asserts.
For almost six decades opinions about Cuba have been divided, so it's no surprise reaction varied widely Friday after President Trump announced that he was "completely cancelling" the "terrible and misguided deal" by President Obama that opened relations with Cuba.
He will not break the diplomatic ties Obama worked so carefully to restore, nor does he plan to impose new trade sanctions. Some U.S. businesses began expanding into the island nation for the first time in five decades.
The Venezuelan leader further censured Trump's speech as "threatening" and "aggressive", saying it exposed the USA president's "contempt" and "ignorance".
Cuba condemns Trump's 'hostile rhetoric' but still wants to talk
Trump described his move as an effort to ramp up pressure to create a "free Cuba" after more than half a century of communism. The policy will maintain diplomatic relations and allow US airlines and cruise ships to continue servicing the island.
"America has rejected the Cuban people's oppressors", Trump said in Miami's Little Havana, the cradle of Cuban-American resistance to Castro's government. Donald Trump vowed to repeal that order Friday, hoping to keep U.S. dollars away from the Cuban government by making travel stringent once again.
But Trump was leaving many of Obama's changes, including the reopened United States embassy in Havana, in place even as he sought to show he was making good on a campaign promise to take a tougher line against Cuba.
Tourists will still be able to travel to Cuba, but it will be harder and restricted compared to the Obama policies. Shakur was a member of the former Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, organizations which fought for the emancipation of Black people living in the United States. He will not cut off recently resumed direct US-Cuba commercial flights or cruise-ship travel.
Trump's speech in Miami is his latest to tear down Obama's legacy, who spent the last two years of his presidency trying to thaw relations with Cuba, which included a trip to the island in 2016. But, in a shift from Obama's approach, Trump said trade and other penalties would stay in place until a long list of prerequisites was met.
The new policy will take effect after the US Department of the Treasury and the US Department of Commerce issue new regulations, which could take "several months", according to the White House. This is meant to avoid hurting Americans who have made recent investments in Cuba. US farmers can continue selling their crops to the Cuban government.
"My administration will not hide from it, excuse it, or glamorize it, and we will never, ever be blind to it", Mr. Trump said.
"So this says, 'Strengthening the policy of the United States toward Cuba.' And I can add, 'Strengthening a lot, '" Trump said Friday before signing an order.
NBC's bias toward Cuba was made evident Thursday night when they sent Andrea Mitchell to the country to regurgitate talking points fed to her by the Cuban government.
Emmer called the "roll back" in relations with Cuba "misguided" and said it "undercuts human rights and threatens national security".
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