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Trump Leaves Cruises to Cuba High and Dry

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Trump Leaves Cruises to Cuba High and Dry

It yet another attempt to unravel “all things Obama” President Trip has renewed severe travel restrictions from the US to Cuba. This includes what has become the most popular method of traveling to the island since such restrictions were lifted – cruise ships.

Cruise travel from the U.S. to Cuba began in May 2016 during President Barack Obama’s opening with the island. It has become the most popular form of U.S. leisure travel to the island, bringing 142,721 people in the first four months of the year, a more than 300% increase over the same period last year. For travelers confused about the thicket of federal regulations governing travel to Cuba, cruises offered a simple, one-stop, guaranteed-legal way to travel.

That now appears to be over.

“Cruise ships as well as recreational and pleasure vessels are prohibited from departing the U.S. on temporary sojourn to Cuba effective June 5th,” the Commerce Department said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The new restrictions are part of a broader effort by the administration of President Donald Trump to roll back the Obama-era efforts to restore normal relations between the United States and Cuba, which drew sharp criticism from the more hardline elements of the Cuban-American community and their allies in Congress.

The Idea Is to Rob Cuba of Revenue

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, who declared Cuba part of a “troika of tyranny ” along with Nicaragua and Venezuela as he outlined plans for sanctions in November, said the new policy is intended to deny the Cuban government a vital source of revenue.

“The Administration has advanced the President’s Cuba policy by ending ‘veiled tourism’ to Cuba and imposing restrictions on vessels,” Bolton said on Twitter. “We will continue to take actions to restrict the Cuban regime’s access to U.S. dollars.”

The Cuban government imposed food rationing last month as a result of tightened U.S. sanctions and a drop in subsidized oil and other aid from Venezuela. For the Cuban government, cruise travel generated many millions of dollars a year in docking fees and payments for on-shore excursions, although those figures were never made public. Cuba also has become the most-requested destination for many South Florida-based cruise lines.

Speaking to local Fox affiliate WSVN, “Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said, “The Trump administration deserves tremendous credit for holding the Cuban regime accountable.” He added, “The United States must use all tools available under U.S. law to counter the Cuban regime’s deceitful activities to undermine U.S. policy.”

1 COMMENT

  1. That money the stupid Americans spent in Cuba doesn’t go to the people the government takes it all. But American people really don’t care about poor people. It’s what in their pockets that count. Dumb old people. You disgrace your own country by going to cuba. Too stupid to understand what is happening there.

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