Tougher Trump line toward Cuba delights hardliners on island

USA travelers are engaging in what amounts to illegal tourism, but they are also pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts that are driving the growth of Cuba's nascent private sector.

Speaking from Miami, Florida, Trump announced changes to President Obama's historic rapprochement with Cuba - fulfilling a promise to the anti-Castro voting bloc he believes helped his campaign clinch the state, but stirring fear among others he could set back business interests and Cuba's potential for a more prosperous private sector.

"Any strategy to change the political, economic and social system in Cuba, whether through pressure... or through more subtle methods, will be doomed to failure", Raul Castro's government said.

"We will not be silent in the face of communist oppression any longer", Trump said during his speech in Little Havana, Miami.

Trump is reversing all of Obama's changes, but sources told ABC News he'll likely redefine what it means to be part of the Cuban military, which could prevent US companies from doing business in Cuba. Such policy characterized the USA approach to Cuba for decades.

The new policy aims to starve military-linked businesses of cash by banning any USA payments to them. "That could bring them under fire now, and they could find themselves much weaker". Despite bitter criticism and personal attacks, most have continued to operate, many with a degree of support from USA individuals and foundations that would have been impossible before the reestablishment of diplomatic relations.

We hope the hubbub over Mr. Trump's announcement won't drown out the voice of José Daniel Ferrer Garcia, general coordinator of Cuba's largest dissident organization, the Cuban Patriotic Union.

In December 2014, former U.S. president Barack Obama announced that the United States would normalize relations with Cuba after more than 50 years of non-engagement and hostilities.

But "personally, part of what makes it hard [to accept] is that we were six years into the administration and spent a year and a half of exhaustive negotiations before announcing" the Cuba opening, said Rhodes, who coincidentally spoke at a Cuban entrepreneurship event in Miami on Monday.

The Cuban government responded Friday evening by rejecting what it called Trump's "hostile rhetoric". I'd transcribe it in the history books. We received nothing from the Cuban government.

The statement added that Havana will continue to work with the U.S.in the matters of common interests, but will not make concessions inherent to its sovereignty and independence.

"It will probably not have any benefit in terms of human rights", said Mr Eliecer Avila, the leader of the opposition youth group Somos Mas. "This will galvanize things".

"The Cuban regime will always find an excuse to blame the USA government", she said.

One of the most criticized, though tolerated, projects that have flourished since the declaration of detente is Cuba Posible, a think tank and online magazine dedicated to creating space for amicable dialogue about the future of Cuba. Find us on Facebook too!

However, President Trump is not rowing back on all parts of Obama's deal. "It's a continuation of old dynamics of confrontation that are immoral, unjust and illegitimate".