President Trump is expected to tighten U.S. travel restrictions when he announces a rollback of some of former President Barack Obama’s Cuba policies during a speech in Miami on Friday.
The White House will only say an announcement on his Cuba policy is coming soon, following a review on the issue by the National Security Council. But a person with knowledge of the plans says a document came out of the NSC on Friday outlining the proposals. A venue in Miami has reportedly been picked for the president’s announcement.
“The devil will be in the details,” the person said. “They’re just announcing the new policy. But then after this, the agencies will actually get to write the regulations, make the changes.”
Trump is expected to use tough rhetoric against the Cuban government in calling for tightening rules for U.S. travel to the country. He is also expected to call for blocking commerce with entities that benefit the Cuban military.
“We anticipate an announcement in the near future,” said White House spokesman Michael Short, who noted how the president has referred to the current Cuba policy as “a bad deal.”
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday the proposal is still undergoing an interagency review process. Asked about the forthcoming announcement, he said the general approach is to “allow as much of this continued commercial and engagement activity to go on as possible.”
“But on the other hand, we think we have achieved very little in terms of changing the behavior of the regime in Cuba and its treatment of people,” Tillerson said. “And it has little incentive today to change that and, in fact, our concern is they may be one of the biggest beneficiaries of all of this.”
Two Cuban-American Republican lawmakers who have pushed for a tougher stance against Cuba, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, have been working behind the scenes with the administration as they’ve prepared to announce the changes.
“I am confident the president will keep his commitment on Cuba policy by making changes that are targeted and strategic and which advance the Cuban people’s aspirations for economic and political liberty,” Rubio said in a statement.
Three Republican senators who support an opening with Cuba — Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi and Arkansas Sen. John Boozman — wrote a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster on June 8 asking the administration to “weigh carefully any rollback of policies.”
The three Republicans acknowledged there “are those who suggest that any changes in U.S.-Cuba policy are concessions that must be met by some definitive action by the Cubans.”
“Instead, we view recent reforms to U.S.-Cuba policy as providing critical strategic advances that have already benefited everyday Cubans and provided direct benefits to Americans by enhancing U.S. national security and boosting the U.S. economy,” they wrote in the letter.
In December 2014, Obama announced plans to restore relations with Cuba, which included reopening an embassy in Havana and relaxing travel limits for Americans.
“In the most significant changes in our policy in more than fifty years, we will end an outdated approach that, for decades, has failed to advance our interests, and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries,” Obama said then. “Through these changes, we intend to create more opportunities for the American and Cuban people, and begin a new chapter among the nations of the Americas.”
During the presidential campaign, Trump promised to reverse Obama’s actions on Cuba, calling it a “one-sided deal for Cuba” that “benefits only the Castro regime” during a September 2016 Florida campaign rally.
“But all the concessions that Barack Obama has granted the Castro regime was done through executive order, which means they can be undone and that is what I intend to do unless the Castro regime meets our demands,” Trump said.
