US imposes tougher policy on Cuba

HOUSTON -- US President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Monday to toughen US policy on Cuba, including restrictions on certain financial transactions and travel.

According to a fact sheet issued by the White House, the memorandum enforces the legal ban on US tourism to Cuba by requiring mandatory record-keeping of all travel-related transactions for a minimum of five years and conducting regular audits to ensure compliance.

The Trump administration aims to end economic practices that disproportionately benefit the Cuban government or its military, intelligence, or security agencies or personnel.

Direct or indirect financial transactions with entities controlled by the Cuban military, such as Grupo de Administracion Empresarial SA (GAESA), and its affiliates are prohibited. More Cubans and entities are henceforth barred from doing business with Americans as the decades-long US economic embargo is enhanced, the memorandum shows.

On the first day of his second term in January, Trump, who has always been tough on Cuba, reversed the decision made by his predecessor Joe Biden to remove Cuba from the list of "state sponsors of terrorism" before leaving office.

In the final days of his first term in 2021, Trump had labeled Cuba as a "state sponsor of terrorism."

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla blasted the memorandum as "a criminal behavior that violates the human rights of an entire nation."

"The Presidential Memorandum vs Cuba released today by the US government strengthens the aggression and economic blockade that punishes the whole Cuban people and is the main obstacle to our development," he said on the social platform X.