Trump administration says ‘group educational travel’ and cruise ships will no longer be ways for US citizens to visit Cuba

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Trump administration has imposed heavy new restrictions on travel to Cuba by US citizens, including a ban on cruises, in a bid to further pressure the communist island over its support for Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro.

The tightening of the decades-old US embargo on the Caribbean’s largest island will further wound its crippled economy as well as hurt US travel companies that had built up business with Cuba during a brief 2014-2016 detente under Barack Obama.

The state department said the United States would no longer allow “group people-to-people educational travel”, one of the most popular exemptions to the overall ban on US tourism to Cuba.

The United States will also no longer permit visits to Cuba via passenger and recreational vessels, including cruise ships and yachts, as well as private and corporate aircraft, it said.

The Trump administration had announced the new restrictions in April.

It also last month allowed US citizens to bring lawsuits against foreign companies for the use of property confiscated after Cuba’s 1959 revolution, hurting investment in the island.

“The administration has advanced the president’s Cuba policy by ending ‘veiled tourism’ to Cuba and imposing restrictions on vessels,” said a tweet from Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, who has led the US campaign against what he has called the “troika of tyranny” of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

“We will continue to take actions to restrict the Cuban regime’s access to US dollars.”

Bruno Rodriguez, Cuba’s foreign minister, said on Twitter the move was “an attack on international law” and the embargo was the main obstacle to the country’s development, thereby violating Cubans’ human rights.

This is the second time the Trump administration has tightened US 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.

“This is another hard blow,” said Miguel Ángel Morales, owner of La Moneda Cubana, a restaurant in Old Havana. “Around 50% of our business comes from the cruise ships.”

US travel to Cuba had boomed in recent years, after Obama loosened restrictions, allowing the re-establishment of regular commercial flights and cruise services.

The United States became the second-largest source of travelers to the island after Canada, with a majority arriving on cruise ships.

According to the Cuban government, 257,500 US citizens, not including those of Cuban origin, visited Cuba from January through March, with 55% arriving on cruise ships.

“He thinks we are just coming here as a tourist but you are learning so much. It’s ridiculous we won’t be able to come any more,” said Cheryl Kolar, 68, a retired nurse who had traveled to Havana by cruise ship.

“Cuba is the only country we are not allowed to go to. We can go to Russia, but for some reason Trump has something against Cuba.”