Trump to face protests over rollback of Obama's Cuba opening

Alan Gomez | USA TODAY

MIAMI — When President Trump travels to this Cuban-American enclave on Friday to announce curbs on recent U.S. ties with Cuba, he'll be flanked by supporters of his moves and confronted by protesters opposed to his rollback of one of President Barack Obama's signature achievements.

Trump, who has assailed Obama's renewed relations with Cuba's communist government after more than 50 years of estrangement, plans to fulfill a campaign promise to those in the Cuban-American community — mostly older Republicans — who want to maintain harsh sanctions against the regime of President Raúl Castro. Trump is scheduled to deliver his speech with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., and other anti-Castro lawmakers who helped craft Trump's policy by his side.

But outside the Little Havana theater where he'll speak, throngs of predominantly younger Cuban Americans plan to demonstrate against retrenchment from closer connections with Cuba based on the argument that improved diplomatic, business and travel ties are the best way to spur growth in Cuba's emerging private sector and pressure the government to end its repression of political freedom. They contend that rolling back the U.S.-Cuban thaw begun by Obama and Castro in December 2014 will hurt the Cuban people more than their communist leaders.

MORE:



"It's heartbreaking," said Patrick Hidalgo, a Cuban-American and former director of the White House Business Council under Obama. "We all know that Raúl Castro and the leadership in Cuba will be fine. They don't worry where they're going to get breakfast, lunch and dinner. The average Cuban does, and our policy has helped them. This change will have a very direct, negative impact on their daily lives and their morale."

Trump won't undo all U.S.-Cuban ties, as he threatened to do while campaigning through South Florida last year. The embassies in Washington, D.C., and Havana that reopened in 2015 will remain, the two governments will continue negotiating on a variety of problems of mutual concern and commercial U.S. flights and cruises crossing the 90 miles separating the two countries will continue.

Rather, advocates on both sides of the issue expect Trump to unveil more modest changes that would limit the ability of U.S. companies to work directly with state-owned businesses in Cuba, and make sure Americans visit the long-isolated island only for specific and closely monitored purposes, not merely as tourists.

The reason for such changes, according to the Trump administration and supporters of the move, is Cuba's failure to open up its political system, sever ties with anti-American dictators and end mistreatment of political dissidents.

"The new policy centers on the belief that the oppressed Cuban people — rather than the oppressive Castro regime’s military and its subsidiaries — should benefit from American engagement with the island," said a Trump administration statement obtained by USA TODAY.

"Nothing has changed because of Obama's opening," said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami. "Cuba remains an enemy of the United States. Cuba remains an ally of Iran, of Russia, of North Korea, of Syria."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told a Senate panel Tuesday that he wants to maintain the "sunny side" of the opening to Cuba, but there also is a "dark side" to the new relationship that the administration needs to correct.

"Political opponents continue to be imprisoned. Dissidents continue to be jailed," Tillerson said. "If we're going to sustain the sunny side of this relationship, Cuba must, absolutely must, begin to address its human rights challenges."

Read more:

Some critics of that approach accuse Trump of hypocrisy. Marselha Margerin of Amnesty International noted that Trump recently traveled to Saudi Arabia, where he lavished its leaders with praise and signed a huge military deal but ignored their flagrant human rights abuses. "It's a bit hypocritical how the U.S. government addresses human rights violations in different countries," she said.

John McCullough, president and CEO of Church World Service, said reports from church leaders in Cuba indicate the government has scaled back arrests of political prisoners. In the first five months of 2016, Cuba averaged 1,215 political arrests a month, according to the Havana-based Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation. Over the same time period in 2017, that average has fallen to 448 arrests a month.

"Our view is that conditions on the ground are, in fact, improving," McCullough said. Church leaders in Cuba, "feel like their voices are being heard and being respected. Increasingly, they feel like they're partners in the development of Cuba."

Trump also has caught heat from members of his own party on Capitol Hill. Three Republican senators who support an opening with Cuba — Jeff Flake of Arizona, Mike Enzi of Wyoming and John Boozman of Arkansas — wrote a letter to Tillerson last week urging him to reconsider any drastic changes with the island.

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., calls himself "the absolute strongest supporter" of Trump, but he said the president will position himself on the "wrong side of history" by rolling back the opening with Cuba. Emmer lamented that Trump seems to be crafting his Cuba policy with only hardline Cuban-American legislators whispering in his ear rather than listening to the growing chorus of Americans, and Cuban-Americans, who want closer ties with their Caribbean neighbors.

"We've tried to communicate with the White House as best we can," Emmer said. "Unfortunately, I think he might be listening to a very small group of voices. Until I hear otherwise, I'm going to hold out hope that the president will listen to some rational voices."