As Reuters reports, the Trump Administration applied heavy restrictions including banning cruises from the US to Cuba, as Cuba supports Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro. The US no longer permits visits to Cuba through passenger and recreational vessels.
Specifically, the Trump Administration highlighted that the US will no longer allow group people-to-people educational travel, one of the most popular exemptions to the overall ban on U.S. tourism to Cuba.
The new restrictions were announced in April, as part of Trump’s war against Latin America.
After the Obama presidency, US travel to Cuba had boomed in recent years, allowing the re-establishment of regular commercial flights and cruise services. Therefore, the US became the second largest-source of travellers to Cuba, following Canada.
Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, commented
We will continue to take actions to restrict the Cuban regime’s access to U.S. dollars.
Moreover, Royal Caribbean Cruises announced that vessels sailing Wednesday and Thursday would no longer stop in Cuba and it would provide updates on future cruise destinations; Whereasm Carnival Corporation commented that it will provide additional information in the near future; On the contrary, the Norwegian Cruise Line noted that it is monitoring the situation.
In light of the American restrictions, Cuba’s President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, commented that the island will not be intimidated.
The Cuban President tweeted
They have not been able to asphyxiate us, they will not be able to stop us, we will continue to live and we will conquer.
This is the second time the Trump administration has tightened U.S. travel restrictions on Cuba. While the measures are designed to hit government coffers, they are also hurting Cuba’s fledgling private sector, which the United States has said it wants to support.
