On June 16, speaking in Miami, President Trump announced measures reversing aspects of his predecessor’s policy of normalising relations with Cuba. Although the changes seem minimal, the content of the accompanying presidential directive and the President’s remarks suggest new uncertainties lie ahead for every nation that had welcomed détente, and the opportunity it offered to deepen bilateral relations.
As has been widely reported, the new regulations, when introduced, will end individual travel by US citizens, tighten US oversight of group travel, and proscribe most US business activities with Cuban military enterprises and their subsidiaries. However, far less clear are the broader implications of the US President’s National Security Directive, ‘Strengthening US Policy towards Cuba’.
One paragraph appears to repeal in its entirety President Obama’s 2016 extensive Policy Directive, ‘Normalization of US-Cuba Relations’ by observing that the Trump security directive “supersedes and replaces both National Security Presidential Directive-52 of June 28, 2007, US Policy toward Cuba, and Presidential Policy Directive-43 of October 14, 2016, United States-Cuba Normalization”.
Speaking to diplomats to
