Cuban government rejects US travel restrictions

HAVANA, Cuba, CMC – The government of Cuba has rejected the new travel restrictions announced by the Donald Trump led administration in the United States.

Shortly after the US Treasury Department announced the restrictions that would further limit the travel of US citizens to the island, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno  Rodriguez, accused the US of trying to “suffocate the economy and damage the standard of living of Cubans in order to wrest political concessions from us.”

“They will fail again,” the Cuban diplomat said  in a statement on Twitter.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Treasury Department announced   new measures that eliminate the possibility of people-to-people educational trips as well as exports of private and corporate ships and planes from U.S. territory and establishes a general policy of denial of license applications involving those ships and aircraft.

The new measures, that came into effect on Wednesday, prohibit private and corporate aircraft, cruise ships, sailboats, fishing boats and other similar aircraft and vessels in general from traveling to Cuba.

The new restrictions are part of a broader effort by the US administration to roll back the efforts by former President Barack Obama to restore normal relations between the United States and Cuba, which drew sharp criticism from the more hardline elements of the Cuban-American community and their allies in Congress.