Donald Trump on Monday threatened to reverse the easing of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba unless the Cuban regime makes concessions to Washington.
If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2016
That deal was struck in 2014 by President Barack Obama and Raul Castro, the Cuban president, and saw diplomatic ties restored, trade expanded and travel between the two countries increased after a half century of frozen relations.
In the days after the death of Fidel Castro, Raul’s brother and the Cuban leader for five decades, Mr Trump and his top advisers have foreshadowed a hawkish approach to the Communist island.
Reince Priebus, who will serve as Mr Trump’s chief of staff, said on Sunday that the incoming administration would “absolutely” roll back those policies unless Cuba made fundamental changes.
“We’re not going to have a unilateral deal coming from Cuba back to the United States without some changes in their government,” he told Fox News. “Repression, open markets, freedom of religion, political prisoners—these things need to change in order to have open and free relationships, and that’s what president-elect Trump believes, and that’s where he’s going to head.”
Kellyanne Conway, another top Trump adviser, said Mr Trump would only open “new conversations” with Havana if a “very different Cuba” emerged.
“He wants to make sure that when the United States of America, when he’s president, engages in any type of diplomatic relations or trade agreements… that we as America are being protected and we as America are getting something in return,” she told ABC News.
The president-elect condemned Castro on Saturday as a “brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades”.
“Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights,” he said in a statement.
The restoration of ties with Cuba is a signature element of Mr Obama’s legacy as president, and any efforts to undermine it will face opposition from the current administration.
Congress has refused to end the longstanding trade embargo, though Mr Obama lifted restrictions of Cuban cigars and rum, and American credit cards can now be used on the island for the first time. Commercial flights from the US to Cuba have also been added in recent months.
Reversing the policy of detente implemented by Mr Obama would also face opposition from business interests, though it would be exceedingly popular among Cuban-Americans, most of whom are fierce opponents of the Cuban regime.
Most Cuban-Americans are concentrated in the key swing state of Florida, and Mr Trump promised to take a hard line on Cuba while campaigning there.
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