British travellers hoping to combine the US and Cuba on the same trip face much tighter restrictions after Donald Trump announced he would reverse some measures introduced by Barack Obama.
In a speech in Miami, the President denounced what he called his predecessor’s “terrible and misguided deal with the Castro regime”.
Mr Obama had eased the economic embargo, which had been in force since the early 1960s, and encouraged “people-to-people” tourism to Cuba.
American citizens and foreign travellers on US territory could access dozens of new scheduled flights to the island.
In the unlikely even that a traveller was challenged for proof, evidence of museum visits, a home stay in a casa particular or lessons in anything from Spanish to salsa was sufficient.
But Mr Trump said: “It’s hard to think of a policy that makes less sense than the prior administration’s.
“The previous administration’s easing of restrictions on travel and trade does not help the Cuban people – they only enrich the Cuban regime. The profits from investment and tourism flow directly to the military.”
He said he was cancelling the “completely one-sided deal with Cuba”.
The President has instructed the US Treasury to issue regulations to end individual people-to-people travel.
Only group trips will be permitted, and they must “must maintain a full-time schedule of educational exchange activities that are intended to enhance contact with the Cuban people, support civil society in Cuba, or promote the Cuban people’s independence from Cuban authorities”.
[Source”timesofindia”]
