Trump takes aim at Cuba travel, trade

Alexandra Glorioso | USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida

MIAMI - An hour before President Donald Trump announced his plan Friday to roll back some of his predecessor’s policies on Cuba, he met with some of the Cuban-Americans who helped get him elected.

Trump met with Humberto Diaz-Arguelles in a back room at the Artime Theater – named after Bay of Pigs leader Manuel Artime – to say that he came to Little Havana to “comply with my promise,” said Diaz-Arguelles, president of the 2506 Brigade, which fought in the 1961 Bay of Pigs battle.

Trump made good on his campaign promise to Diaz-Arguelles, 74, and other Cuban Americans who opposed President Barack Obama’s actions to loosen U.S. restrictions on travel and trade with the communist country.

In October, Diaz-Arguelles’ organization broke with its five-decade political silence to back Trump in the hope he would help overthrow the Castro government once and for all.

Trump’s private meeting and his speech in Miami were aimed at acknowledging an important group of supporters in battleground Florida. His announced Cuba policy comes as he deals with the effect of a sprawling investigation into Russian influence at the beginning of his presidency.

When Trump took the stage, he attributed his win in Florida, in part, to the Brigade.

“I was honored for getting the Bay of Pigs award right before the election,” Trump said. “I guess it worked, right?”

Trump’s policies restore a strict tourism ban and requires documentation of visits to Cuba to ensure compliance and imposes a ban on business transactions with Cuban entities with ties to the military.

“To the Cuban government, I say, put an end to the abuse of dissidents. Release political prisoners. Stop jailing innocent people. Open yourselves to political and economic freedoms,” Trump said.

He promised to not lift sanctions against Cuba until the regime met these demands, held internationally supervised free elections and legalized political parties.

And, “the harboring of criminals and fugitives will end. You have no choice, it will end,” Trump said.

But Trump stopped short of reversing all of Obama’s actions. He kept the U.S. embassy open in Cuba and left untouched Obama’s termination of the wet-foot-dry-foot policy that granted Cuban’s immediate documentation upon touching American soil that allowed them to pursue residency.

“We will keep in place the safeguards to prevent Cubans from risking their lives for unlawful travel to the United States. They are in such danger the way they have to come to this country and we are going to be safeguarding those people,” Trump said.

Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas questioned Trump’s plans to restrict sale of U.S. products to Cuba, saying the island nation “is a natural market for our nation’s farmers and ranchers — and when we don’t sell to Cuba, another country does.”

Borrowing a Trump campaign phrase, Moran said “putting America first means exporting what we produce to countries across the globe.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued a statement saying “today’s moves actually limit the possibility for positive change on the island.”

Trump described his new Cuba policy as simply enforcing the 56-year old U.S. embargo.

U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, was instrumental, along with GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Miami, in helping Trump craft his new directive, as well as blocking a push by some businesses to keep Obama’s policies in place. Diaz-Balart and Rubio traveled with Trump from Washington to attend the speech.

“Whether it’s six months or six years, Cuba will be free. And when it is, I believe that people on the island and history will say that perhaps the key moment began on this day, in this theater,” Rubio said on stage before Trump’s speech.

Trump said he would enforce the ban on tourism and “very strongly restrict American dollars flowing to the military.” The military controls hotels, airlines, ports and many restaurants on the island.

“It’s real,” said Diaz-Balart. R-Miami. “When you look at the actual text, it is serious, it’s real.”

Trump signed his executive order directly after the speech. Government agencies such as the Treasury Department will now have the task of enforcing agreements with Cuba that are consistent with Trump’s action.

In 2014, Obama began normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba. In 2015, he removed Cuba from the U.S. State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Trump didn’t address whether he would put Cuba back on the terrorist list and when asked about it, Diaz-Balart said, “We’ll talk about it later.”

Last year, Obama restored commercial flights between the two countries and reopened the U.S. embassy on the island.

“Our embassy remains open in the hope that our countries can forge a much stronger and better path,” Trump said.“We challenge Cuba to come to the table with a new agreement that is in the best interest of both their people and our people and also of Cuban-Americans.”

Outside of the legendary Cafe Versailles, the epicenter of Miami’s Cuban exile community, a group of older Cubans reacted passionately to news about Trump’s speech.

“I think they have to solve problems with diplomacy, not war,” said Antonio Fundora, 66.

Fundora has been in the U.S. for four years, but is worried how a tougher U.S. stance towards the Cuban government may affect family members back home.

Most of those congregating in front of Versailles’ take-out window on Friday were pleased with Trump’s intentions to take a less diplomatic approach towards the Cuban government.

“Yes, we are super happy that he is going to put in place tougher restrictions,” said Maria de Gardénas, 66, who has been living in the U.S. for 54 years.

Restrictions on tourism, de Gardénas said, are very effective “because the money is going to stop for the Castro regime.”

USA TODAY reporter David Jackson and Naples Daily News reporter Alena Maschke contributed to this report.