Miami (CNN) President Donald Trump slammed former President Barack Obama's dealings with the communist regime in Cuba on Friday in Miami, charting his own course of more confrontational relations with the Castro-led government.

The speech, which came as the President signed a directive outlining his posture toward Cuba, is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to chip away at Obama's legacy. Obama spent the last two years of his presidency looking to warm relations with Cuba, including a trip to the island in 2016.

"I am canceling the last administration's completely one-sided deal with Cuba," Trump said.

Casting the Obama administration as people who looked the other way on the Castro regime's human rights violations, Trump said that he, as President, will "expose the crimes of the Castro regime."

"They made a deal with a government that spread violence and instability in the region and nothing they got, think about it, nothing they got, they fought for everything and we just didn't fight hard enough, but now, those days are over," Trump said. "We now hold the cards. The previous administration's easing of restrictions of travel and trade does not help the Cuban people. They only enrich the Cuban regime."

Trump listed some of the Castro regime's anti-United States actions, ranging back to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and added, "We will never, ever be blind to it. We know what is going on and we remember what happened."

Although Trump said he was "completely" canceling Obama's Cuba policy, the change is posture is only a partial shift from Obama's policy.

Diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba will remain open, as will the newly opened embassies in Washington and Havana. And there will be no further restrictions on the types of goods that Americans can take out of Cuba, including the country's popular rum and cigars

Trump said he is keeping the embassy open "in the hope that our countries can forge a much stronger and better path."

The changes do, however, tighten restrictions on Cuba and ratchet up rhetoric on the Castro regime in hopes that it will lead to a transition of power on the island. Many presidents, though, have predicted the end of the Castros and, to date, none have been correct.

The Trump administration will begin strictly enforcing the authorized exemptions that allow travel between the US and Cuba and prohibit commerce with Cuban businesses owned by the military and intelligence services. The President also directed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to convene a task force on expanding Internet access on the island and reiterate the United States' opposition to efforts in the United Nations to lift the Cuban embargo until more is done to honor human rights.

"To the Cuban government, I say, put an end to the abuse of dissidents, release the political prisoners, stop jailing innocent people, open yourselves to political and economic freedoms, return the fugitives from American justice, including the return of the cop killer Joanne Chesimard," Trump said, referencing the former Black Panther who was convicted of murder in 1977.

Trump responded well to the adoring crowd, even at one point kissing a Cuban dissident on the cheek and pronouncing "Little Havana" with a mimic Cuban accent.

He challenged the Castro regime "to come to the table with a new agreement that is in the best interest of both their people and our people."

And in possibly his toughest rhetoric directed at Castro, Trump flatly said, "the harboring of criminals and fugitives will end. You have no choice. It will end."

The Castro government criticized Trump's move, calling it "ill-advised" in a statement Friday.

"The United States are not in the condition to lecture us" on human rights, Havana added, citing police brutality, firearm deaths and estimates that as many as 23 million Americans would lose health insurance under the House GOP health care plan.

Ahead of Friday's remarks, the Cuban government -- including Cuban President Raul Castro -- signaled a willingness to negotiate with Trump.

"We know they have a different view of the world," a Cuban official told CNN. "We understand that."

None of these new regulations take effect immediately, a White House official said, adding that government agencies are expected to officially issue the regulatory amendments in the coming months.

Trump was knocked Friday, though, from both sides. Some Republicans said the policy did not go far enough, while Democrats charged the roll back as reactionary.

"The policy isn't going to do anything new," a source from the office of one Cuban American lawmaker complained. "It's pretty weak."

Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said Friday the "decision by the Trump Administration to reverse progress in US-Cuba relations sends the wrong message to the world about American leadership."

"We must never stop pressing the Cuban government on democracy and human rights, but further restricting economic and cultural engagement between our two nations betrays the spirit of cooperation that will ultimately help empower the Cuban people to choose their own destiny," he said.

Changes in policy

Obama, after years of clandestine work with the Castro regime, announced in 2014 that the United States would re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen the American embassy in Havana, which was closed in 1961 following the Cuban revolution. The announcement led Obama to visit Cuba in 2016, making him the first sitting president to visit the island in more than 50 years.

The moved allowed for more Americans to travel to Cuba, with US air carriers marketing commercial flights direct to the island and cruise ships to port in the nation. The thaw also allowed Americans to bring more goods back from the island nation.

Trump was personally invested in drafting the plans on Cuba, multiple aides told CNN, with one adding that the President deeply believes that the changes Obama announced in 2014 were a "bad deal for the United States and a bad deal for the Cuban people."

"It has not led to greater freedom in Cuba," the official said. "I don't think you would see him go back to the embargo wholesale, look for ways to leverage America's influence over Cuba in a way that will encourage greater freedom for the Cuban people and economic interaction."

Limits on business

Trump's new policy will directly limit commerce with GAESA, the Cuban military's business and commerce wing. The company is run by Gen. Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Callejas, Raul Castro's son-in-law.

That action could adversely impact hotel brands that directly compete with Trump's business empire, making it more difficult for them expand their foothold in Cuba. Gaviota, GAESA's tourism arm, currently operates the Four Points by Sheraton Havana, a hotel that, when it opened, was the first US hotel to open in Cuba in nearly 60 years.

Although officials said Trump's plans were not meant to "disrupt existing transactions that have (already) occurred," the new policy would make it difficult for any American company to expand their footprint in Cuba.

White House officials said the effort was meant to direct American business to private companies and AirBnB, the vacation rental company that began allowing Cubans rent out their homes in 2016.

And on non-Cuban American travel, a change would make Americans who travel under the Obama administration categories of permitted travel subject to a Treasury Department audit, a move that could have a cooling effect on travel as it adds a potential layer of inconvenience to travelers.

Rubio's influence

Marco Rubio, who joined Trump on Air Force One on Friday, spent months working to push Trump toward more strict rules and though Trump and Rubio sparred -- at times personally -- during the 2016 campaign, the President heralded the Rubio's views on Cuban relations after a February dinner.

"We had dinner with Sen. Rubio and his wife, who was, by the way, lovely, and we had a very good discussion about Cuba because we have very similar views on Cuba," Trump said, adding that "Cuban people" were "very good" to him in the 2016 election.

Rubio, in particular, made Friday's policy announcement about Obama, charging the former president with looking the other way on Cuba's human rights abuses.

"A year and a half ago, an American president landed in Havana and outstretched his hand to a regime," Rubio said. "Today, a new president lands in Miami to reach out his hand to the people of Cuba."

Trump said throughout the 2016 campaign that he was willing to rollback diplomatic relations with the communist regime in Cuba. Especially in Southern Florida, where Cubans make up a key voting bloc for Republicans, Trump railed on Obama for building relations with the Castros.

Trump has long hanged his understanding of the deal between the United States and Cuba on his "Cuban friends" in Florida, whom he said throughout the campaign supported him over Democrat Hillary Clinton. To a degree, he was right: Trump did beat the former secretary of state in Florida, providing the effective knock out blow to Clinton on Election Night.

But Republicans were not unified behind Trump's action.

Sen. Jeff Flake, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, panned Trump on Friday.

"Any policy change that diminishes the ability of Americans to travel freely to Cuba is not in the best interests of the United States or the Cuban people," Flake said. "It is time Senate leadership finally allowed a vote on my bipartisan bill to fully lift these archaic restrictions which do not exist for travel by Americans to any other country in the world."</s>MIAMI (CNN) -- President Donald Trump Friday charted his own course for more confrontational relations with the Castro-led government in Cuba with a speech in Miami

The speech, which came as the President signed a directive outlining his posture towards Cuba, is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to chip away at former President Barack Obama's legacy. Obama spent the last two years of his presidency looking to warm relations with Cuba, including a trip to the island in 2016.

The change is posture, however, is only a partial shift from Obama's policy.

Diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba will remain open, as will the newly opened embassies in Washington and Havana. And there will be no further restrictions on the types of goods that Americans can take out of Cuba, including the country's popular rum and cigars.

The Trump administration will begin strictly enforcing the authorized exemptions that allow travel between the US and Cuba and prohibit commerce with Cuban businesses owned by the military and intelligence services. The President also directed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to convene a task force on expanding Internet access on the island and reiterate the United States' opposition to efforts in the United Nations to lift the Cuban embargo until more is done to honor human rights.

None of these new regulations take effect immediately, a White House official said, adding that government agencies are expected to officially issue the regulatory amendments in the coming months.

"The policy isn't going to do anything new," a source from the office of one Cuban American lawmaker complained. "It's pretty weak."

Ahead of Friday's remarks, the Cuban government -- including Cuban President Raul Castro -- is signaling a willingness to negotiate with Trump.

"We know they have a different view of the world," a Cuban official told CNN. "We understand that."

Obama, after years of clandestine work with the Castro regime, announced in 2014 that the United States would re-establish diplomatic relations and reopen the American embassy in Havana, which was closed in 1961 following the Cuban revolution. The announcement led Obama to visit Cuba in 2016, making him the first sitting president to visit the island in more than 50 years.

The moved allowed for more Americans to travel to Cuba, with US air carriers marketing commercial flights direct to the island and cruise ships to port in the nation. The thaw also allowed Americans to bring more goods back from the island nation.

Trump was personally invested in drafting the plans on Cuba, multiple aides told CNN, with one adding that the President deeply believes that the changes Obama announced in 2014 were a "bad deal for the United States and a bad deal for the Cuban people."

"It has not led to greater freedom in Cuba," the official said. "I don't think you would see him go back to the embargo wholesale, look for ways to leverage America's influence over Cuba in a way that will encourage greater freedom for the Cuban people and economic interaction."

Trump's new policy will directly limit commerce with GAESA, the Cuban military's business and commerce wing. The company is run by Gen. Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Callejas, Raul Castro's son-in-law.

That action could adversely impact hotel brands that directly compete with Trump's business empire, making it more difficult for them expand their foothold in Cuba. Gaviota, GAESA's tourism arm, currently operates the Four Points by Sheraton Havana, a hotel that, when it opened, was the first US hotel to open in Cuba in nearly 60 years.

Although officials said Trump's plans were not meant to "disrupt existing transactions that have (already) occurred," the new policy would make it difficult for any American company to expand their footprint in Cuba.

White House officials said the effort was meant to direct American business to private companies and AirBnB, the vacation rental company that began allowing Cubans rent out their homes in 2016.

And on non-Cuban American travel, a change would make Americans who travel under the Obama administration categories of permitted travel subject to a Treasury Department audit, a move that could have a cooling effect on travel as it adds a potential layer of inconvenience to travelers.

Marco Rubio, who joined Trump on Air Force One on Friday, spent months working to push Trump toward more strict rules and though Trump and Rubio sparred -- at times personally -- during the 2016 campaign, the President heralded the Rubio's views on Cuban relations after a February dinner.

"We had dinner with Sen. Rubio and his wife, who was, by the way, lovely, and we had a very good discussion about Cuba because we have very similar views on Cuba," Trump said, adding that "Cuban people" were "very good" to him in the 2016 election.

Rubio touted Trump on Friday before arriving in Miami.

"His objective is to support the Cuban people by driving US visitors to small business they own so they can become independent of regime," Rubio said on Twitter. "That is why no direct transactions will be allowed with the businesses owned & operated by the military monopoly or its affiliates."

Trump said throughout the 2016 campaign that he was willing to rollback diplomatic relations with the communist regime in Cuba. Especially in Southern Florida, where Cubans make up a key voting bloc for Republicans, Trump railed on Obama for building relations with the Castros.

Trump has long hanged his understanding of the deal between the United States and Cuba on his "Cuban friends" in Florida, whom he said throughout the campaign supported him over Democrat Hillary Clinton. To a degree, he was right: Trump did beat the former secretary of state in Florida, providing the effective knock out blow to Clinton on Election Night.

But Republicans were not unified behind Trump's action.

Sen. Jeff Flake, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, panned Trump on Friday.

"Any policy change that diminishes the ability of Americans to travel freely to Cuba is not in the best interests of the United States or the Cuban people," Flake said. "It is time Senate leadership finally allowed a vote on my bipartisan bill to fully lift these archaic restrictions which do not exist for travel by Americans to any other country in the world."

This story is breaking and will be updated.</s>Washington: Stopping short of a complete turnabout, president Donald Trump is expected on Friday to announce a revised Cuba policy aimed at stopping the flow of US cash to the country's military and security services while maintaining diplomatic relations and allowing US airlines and cruise ships to continue service to the island.

In a speech Friday at a Miami theatre associated with Cuban exiles, Trump will cast the policy moves as the fulfilment of a promise he made during last year's presidential campaign to reverse then-president Barack Obama's diplomatic re-engagement with the island after decades of estrangement.

Senior White House officials who briefed reporters Thursday on the coming announcement said Obama's overtures had enriched Cuba's military while repression increased on the island. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the policy before Trump announces it, despite the president's regular criticism of the use of anonymous sources.

The moves to be announced by Trump are only a partial reversal of Obama's policies, however. And they will saddle the US government with the complicated task of policing US travel to Cuba to make sure there are no transactions with the military-linked conglomerate that runs much of the Cuban economy.

By restricting individual US travel to Cuba, the new policy also risks cutting off a major source of income for Cuba's private business sector, which the policy is meant to support.

Under the expected changes, the US will ban American financial transactions with the dozens of enterprises run by the military-linked corporation GAESA, which operates dozens of hotels, tour buses, restaurants and other facilities.

Most US travellers to Cuba will again be required to visit the island as part of organised tour groups run by American companies. The rules also require a daylong schedule of activities designed to expose the travellers to ordinary Cubans. But because Cuban rules require tour groups to have government guides and use state-run tour buses, the requirement has given the Cuban government near-total control of travellers' itineraries and funnelled much of their spending to state enterprises.

Obama eliminated the tour requirement, allowing tens of thousands of Americans to book solo trips and spend their money with individual bed-and-breakfast owners, restaurants and taxi drivers.

The US Embassy in Havana, which reopened in August 2015, will remain as a full-fledged diplomatic outpost. Trump isn't overturning Obama's decision to end the "wet foot, dry foot" policy that allowed most Cuban migrants who made it onto US soil to stay and eventually become legal permanent residents.

Also not expected are any changes to US regulations governing what items Americans can bring back from Cuba, including the rum and cigars produced by state-run enterprises.

More details about the changes are expected to be released Friday when the new policy is set to take effect. But none of the changes will become effective until the treasury department issues new regulations, which could take months. That means that any US traveller currently booked on a flight to Cuba in the next few weeks, or even months, could go ahead and make the trip.

Critics said the changes would only hurt everyday Cubans who work in the private sector and depend on American visitors to help provide for their families. Supporters expressed appreciation for Trump's emphasis on human rights in Cuba.

Obama announced in December 2014 that he and Cuban leader Raul Castro were restoring diplomatic ties between their countries, arguing that the policy the US had pursued for decades had failed to bring about change and that it was time to try a new approach.

The US severed diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961 after Fidel Castro's revolution. It spent subsequent decades trying to either overthrow the Cuban government or isolate the island, including toughening an economic embargo first imposed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The embargo remains in place and unchanged by Trump's policy. Only the US Congress can lift the embargo, and lawmakers, especially those of Cuban heritage, like Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have shown no interest in doing so.

The son of a Cuban immigrant, Rubio opposed Obama's re-engagement with Cuba, saying Obama was making concessions to an "odious regime."

Trump aides said Thursday that Rubio was "very helpful" to the administration as it spent months reviewing the policy. The senator, who challenged Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, was expected to travel with the president aboard Air Force One and appear with him at Friday's announcement.

The change in the US posture toward Cuba under Trump marks the latest policy about-face by the president.

While campaigning last year in Miami, which is home to a large Cuban-American population, Trump pledged to reverse Obama's efforts to normalise relations with Cuba unless it met certain "demands," including granting Cubans religious and political freedom and releasing all political prisoners.

He said he would "stand with the Cuban people in their fight against communist oppression," and went on to win about half the Cuban vote in Florida in the presidential election.

Trump had previously said he supported restoring diplomatic relations but wished the US had negotiated a better deal.

For the announcement, the White House chose to have Trump speak at the Manuel Artime Theatre in Miami. The theatre is named for an exile leader of the Bay of Pigs veterans' association that endorsed Trump last October.</s>President Donald Trump has said he is restoring some travel and economic restrictions on Cuba that were lifted by Barack Obama’s administration.

He challenged the communist government of Raul Castro to negotiate a better deal for Cubans and Cuban-Americans.

Announcing the changes during a speech in Miami, Mr Trump said Cuba had secured far too many concessions from the US in the “misguided” deal but “now those days are over”.

He said penalties on Cuba would remain in place until its government releases political prisoners, stops abusing dissidents and respects freedom of expression.

“America has rejected the Cuban people’s oppressors,” Mr Trump said in a crowded, sweltering auditorium. “They are rejected officially today – rejected.”

Though Mr Trump’s announcement stops short of a full reversal of the Cuba rapprochement, it targets the travel and economic engagement between the countries that has blossomed in the short time since relations were restored.

The goal is to halt the flow of US cash to the country’s military and security services in a bid to increase pressure on Cuba’s government.

Embassies in Havana and Washington will remain open. US airlines and cruise ships will still be allowed to serve the island 90 miles south of Florida.

The “wet foot, dry foot” policy, which once let most Cuban migrants stay if they made it to US soil but was ended under Mr Obama, will remain terminated. Remittances to Cuba will not be cut off.

But individual “people-to-people” trips by Americans to Cuba, allowed by Mr Obama for the first time in decades, will again be prohibited.

And the US government will police other such trips to ensure there is a tour group representative along making sure travellers are pursuing a “full-time schedule of educational exchange activities”.

Mr Trump described his move as an effort to ramp up pressure to create a “free Cuba” after more than half a century of communism.

“I do believe that end is in the very near future,” he said.

His move was a direct rebuke to Mr Obama, for whom the diplomatic opening with Cuba was a central accomplishment of his presidency. The new president’s action is broadly opposed by American business groups.

“US private sector engagement can be a positive force for the kind of change we all wish to see in Cuba,” said Myron Brilliant, the US Chamber of Commerce executive vice president and head of international affairs.

“Unfortunately, today’s moves actually limit the possibility for positive change on the island and risk ceding growth opportunities to other countries that, frankly, may not share America’s interest in a free and democratic Cuba that respects human rights.”

In Cuba, Granma, the official organ of the nation’s Communist Party, covered Friday’s speech in a real-time blog, saying: “Trump’s declarations are a return to imperialist rhetoric and unilateral demands, sending relations between Havana and Washington back into the freezer.”</s>Donald Trump is on Friday to announce the partial reversal of Barack Obama’s Cuba policy – reimposing restrictions on travel and business in a move he said would “empower the Cuban people and hold the regime accountable”.

The president campaigned on a pledge to roll back Mr Obama’s historic reform, which supporters said nudged Cuba towards political change by removing the “US threat” as an excuse for the status quo.

Opponents of Mr Obama’s policy, however, have pointed out that President Raul Castro has shown no signs of allowing democratic progress, and is indeed harassing and rounding up protesters at a greater rate than before.

The 86-year-old announced in 2013 that he would be stepping down in February, after their five-yearly National Assembly meeting.

But Mr Trump, addressing a crowd in Miami’s Little Havana district – home to fervently anti-Castro Cuban exiles, was not prepared to wait and see what would happen after Mr Castro's retirement.

Even the venue of his speech was symbolic, choosing the Manuel Artime theatre, named after the civilian leader of the ill-fated 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

Mr Trump’s new policy will see a ban on business dealings with the Cuban military, and toughened restrictions on Americans travelling to the island.</s>WASHINGTON — Reversing yet another policy move by Barack Obama, President Trump plans to re-institute restrictions on travel to Cuba and U.S. business dealings with entities tied to the Cuban military and intelligence services, officials said Thursday.

Trump's changes, to be announced during a Friday speech in Miami, are not expected to affect the re-establishment of basic diplomatic relations with Cuba, including renewed embassies in the respective country's capitals.

"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.

Supporters of Trump's changes said they are designed to hurt Cuba's communist government economically, and encourage people to rise up against the regime that has been in power since 1959. Obama revived diplomatic relations with Cuba in an effort to ease a half-century of tensions that marked the Cold War, including the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Protesters who support easing restrictions on Cuba — saying that more engagement with the island is a better bet to undermine the regime — are expected to mass outside the theater in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood where Trump is expected to speak.

Nearly five months into office, Trump has reversed Obama on items ranging from business regulations to participation in the Paris climate change agreement.

Trump pledged to reverse Obama's new approach to Cuba as part of last year's presidential campaign, especially during appearances in Florida.

During a Nov. 2 appearance in Miami, Trump told supporters, "we will cancel Obama's one-sided Cuban deal made by executive order, if we do not get the deal we want, and the deal that people living in Cuba and here deserve."

Yet Trump is unlikely to undo all U.S.-Cuban ties.

In addition to keeping open embassies in Washington and Havana, the two governments are expected to continue negotiating on a variety of problems of mutual concern and some commercial U.S. flights and cruises crossing the 90 miles separating the two countries could continue.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., worked with Trump on the changes, pushing for a harder line.

"Economic practices that benefit the Cuban military at the expense of the Cuban people will soon be coming to an end," Rubio wrote on Twitter.

Some business groups, meanwhile, lobbied the Trump administration to keep the Obama rules in place, including hotel and airline interest seeking to expand business into the island.

Marguerite Jiménez, senior associate for Cuba with the Washington Office on Latin America, called Trump's plan "political grandstanding" that could well hurt average Cubans,

"If the Trump administration really wants to improve conditions for everyday Cubans and advance U.S. interests, ending engagement is precisely the wrong approach,” Jiménez said.

In its statement, the Trump administration said its new policy "reverses the Obama administration’s support for the communist Castro regime and its military apparatus, and instead aligns the United States with the Cuban people."

American tourists with existing plans to travel to Cuba may not be affected. Trump's changes would not go into effect until specific new regulations are written and put in place.

Further changes, the administration said, "will depend entirely on the Cuban government’s willingness to expand the Cuban people’s political freedom, respect their universal rights, and allow freedom of press as well as free and fair democratic elections."</s>President Donald Trump on Friday will announce plans to tighten restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba and clamp down on US business dealings with the island’s military, rolling back parts of former President Barack Obama’s historic opening to Havana.

Laying out his new Cuba policy in a speech in Miami, Trump will issue a presidential directive to reverse some of the loosened regulations that Obama introduced after a 2014 breakthrough between the two former Cold War foes, senior White House officials said.

Trump, taking a tougher approach against Havana after promising to do so during the presidential campaign, will outline stricter enforcement of a long-time ban on Americans going to Cuba as tourists and will seek to prevent US dollars from being used to fund what the new US administration sees as a repressive military-dominated government.

But, facing pressure from US business and some of his fellow Republicans to avoid turning back the clock completely in relations with communist-ruled Cuba, he also will leave intact many of Obama’s steps toward normalization.

The new policy will ban most US business transactions with the Armed Forces Business Enterprises Group (GAESA), a sprawling conglomerate involved in all sectors of the economy, but make some exceptions, including for air and sea travel, the officials said. This will essentially shield US airlines and cruise-ship companies now serving the island.

However, Trump will stop short of closing embassies or breaking diplomatic relations restored in 2015 after more than five decades of hostility and will not cut off recently resumed direct US-Cuba commercial flights - though his more restrictive policy seems certain to dampen new economic ties.

The administration, according to one White House official, does not intend to “disrupt” existing business ventures such as one struck under Obama by Starwood Hotels, which is owned by Marriott International Inc, to manage a Havana hotel.

Nor are there plans to reinstate limits that Obama lifted on the amount of the island’s coveted rum and cigars that Americans can bring home for personal use. As a result, the changes – though far-reaching – appear to be less sweeping than many US pro-engagement advocates had feared.

Trump will justify his partial reversal of Obama’s measures to a large extent on human rights grounds. His aides contend that Obama’s easing of U.S. restrictions amounted to “appeasement” and has done nothing to advance political freedoms in Cuba, while benefiting the Cuban government financially.

Saying that the aim was to repair what Trump has called a “bad deal” struck by Obama, US officials said the new administration would leave the door open to improved relations if Cuba undertakes democratic reforms such as allowing free elections and releasing political prisoners.

International human rights groups say, however, that reinstating a US policy of isolating the island could make the situation worse by empowering Cuban hardliners. The Cuban government has made clear it will not be pressured into reforms in exchange for further engagement with Washington.

“If you want Cuba to change and reform, we are doing the opposite of what would be most likely to bring about reforms,” said Ben Rhodes, a former Obama aide who helped negotiate rapprochement.

Trump’s critics have also questioned why his administration is now singling out Cuba for its human rights record while downplaying the issue in other parts of the world.

Trump will announce his new approach early Friday afternoon at the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami’s Little Havana, the heart of America’s largest Cuban-American community, whose support aides believe helped him win Florida in the election. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a key player in forging the new policy, was expected to attend along with other Cuban-American lawmakers.

Under Trump’s order, the Treasury and Commerce Departments will be given 30 days to begin writing new regulations and they will not take effect until they are complete. No deadline has been set, the officials said.

Under the revised travel policy, US officials say there will be tighter enforcement to make sure Americans legally fit the 12 authorized categories they claim to be traveling under, which could spook many visitors, wary of receiving a hefty fine.

While tourism to Cuba is banned by US law, the Obama administration had been allowing people to travel to Cuba as part of “people to people” educational trips for visitors, a popular classification that a White House official said was “ripe for abuse” by those looking for beach vacations.

Trump’s new policy will eliminate such self-certified visits by individuals while still allowing them to be done as group tours, and also retaining some individual travel under other authorized categories such as religious, artistic and journalistic activities, officials said.

In a contentious internal debate, some aides argued that Trump, a former real estate magnate who won the presidency promising to unleash US business and create jobs, would have a hard time defending any moves that close off the Cuban market.

But other advisers have contended that it is important to make good on a campaign promise to Cuban-Americans.</s>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will announce a new policy toward Cuba on Friday that prohibits any commercial dealings with Cuba’s economically powerful military and somewhat limits the freedom of U.S. citizens to travel to the island but leaves in place many changes implemented by his predecessor.

In a speech to be delivered in the heart of Miami’s Little Havana, where an older generation of Cuban Americans has long objected to normalization of relations with the communist government of President Raul Castro, Trump will declare an end to the Obama administration’s policy of “appeasement,” a senior White House official said.

“The basic policy driver,” another official said, was Trump’s “concern that the previous policy was enriching the Cuban military and the intelligence services that contribute so much to repression on the island.” Any benefits of an opening to Cuba, the official said, should “go to the Cuban people.”

Through civilian-run holding companies, the Cuban military owns or controls much of the economy, particularly the tourism sector. Former president Barack Obama had allowed some transactions with the security services on grounds that money would trickle down to individual Cubans who gained employment and more contact with the outside world.

Significantly, the new directive will not affect those elements of the normalization begun by Obama in December 2014 that are popular with younger Cuban Americans and others who have taken full advantage of them. Unlimited “family” travel and money sent to private Cubans on the island will remain unchanged.

Three officials who briefed reporters ahead of Trump’s address, on White House-imposed condition of anonymity, said no policy changes would go immediately into effect. Instead, a new presidential directive will order the Treasury and Commerce departments to begin within 30 days to write new regulations that reverse some of those Obama implemented to ease the U.S. embargo against Cuba that has remained in place for nearly 60 years. Only Congress can lift it.

Asked whether companies that have already signed Cuban contracts, such as Starwood Hotels and Resorts, should expect to lose money, an official said, “that will be handled in the specifics of regulations by Treasury and Commerce.” But “the administration’s intent,” the official said, “is not to disrupt existing transactions that have [already] occurred.”

Regulations allowing U.S. commercial flights and cruise ship to travel to Cuba will not be affected, the officials said. Diplomatic relations established by Obama will remain.

The restrictions on dealing with the military could significantly affect American travel, though the military already has begun to reorganize its ownership of some businesses and entities in anticipation of such changes. Airbnb, which has built a multimillion-dollar business among Cubans who rent out rooms to foreign visitors, is not affected by the new policy. Americans will also still be allowed to bring back unlimited amounts of Cuban products — including rum and cigars — for personal use.

But the ease with which U.S. citizens have been able to travel to Cuba over the past two years could also be affected by a significant change in Treasury’s control over their activities. Although the U.S. government does not technically prohibit Cuban travel, Treasury regulations under the embargo prohibit the expenditure of U.S. dollars without a special license. Successive presidents have eased and tightened that prohibition, and Obama significantly loosened it by allowing individuals to “self-declare” the purpose of their travel in one of a dozen allowed categories, including for educational, commercial or “support for the Cuban people” purposes.

While tourist travel remained officially banned, Obama also allowed a broad category of “people to people” visits to Cuba. Trump’s new directive still allows individual travel in all but that category and reverts to an earlier policy of requiring “people to people” visits only in a Treasury-licensed group.

While Americans have long been required to be able to “authenticate” the purpose of any visit to Cuba and to keep receipts and records for five years, the rules were rarely enforced. The White House officials indicated Trump would call for a tighter enforcement.

The officials said the aging Cuban government, in which Castro is due to be replaced next year by a designated successor, can return to favor with the United States by improving its human rights record, including lifting restrictions on dissent, releasing political prisoners and moving toward democracy.

Trump has conspicuously shied away from emphasizing human rights concerns in other countries with similarly dismal records, including Saudi Arabia. During his visit to Riyadh last month, he said he had not come to “lecture” about any country’s internal policies.

Asked why he appears to have a different attitude toward Cuba, an official said that “the President has made clear” that he will call out “repressive regimes in this hemisphere,” and fulfill a promise he made last year on the campaign trail to reverse elements of what he called Obama’s “bad deal” with Havana.</s>President Donald Trump will announce curbs on US firms doing business with the Cuban military and tighter rules on travel to the island on Friday during a visit to the spiritual home of the Cuban-American exile community.

Trump will appear in Miami's Little Havana at a theater named after an anti-communist veteran of the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion to launch a move that will begin to roll back his predecessor Barack Obama's outreach to Havana.

US officials told reporters that he will announce a prohibition on "financial transactions" with Cuba's military-backed tourism conglomerate GAESA, a body which might otherwise have hoped for a windfall from long absent American visitors.

"The basic policy driver is concern that the previous policy was enriching the military and the intelligence services that contribute so much to oppression on the island," a senior administration official said.

"That's the opposite of what he wanted to achieve," he added, arguing that Trump's move is not a step back to the Cold War-era embargo that Obama started to dismantle, but a recognition that Raul Castro's one-party regime has a long way to go to meet its promises of reform.

"The hope of the administration is that the Cuban regime will see this as an opportunity for them to implement the reforms that they paid lip service to a couple of years ago but that have not in any way been implemented to the benefit of the Cuban people," he said.

The firm -- run by Castro's son-in-law Luis Rodriguez Lopez-Callejas -- is involved in joint ventures with several foreign firms that have driven a tourism boom on the island, including the Marriott hotel chain.

The official said the new restrictions would not go into place until new regulations are published, and played down the threat to US business interests.

"It's not that he is opposed to any deal with Cuba, he is opposed to a bad deal with Cuba," he said of Trump.

Under a new National Security Presidential Memorandum, Trump is also expected to announce stricter enforcement of the rules under which Americans can travel to Cuba.

American citizens will still be able to take commercial flights to Cuba, but only for 12 specific reasons -- ranging from journalism to educational activities -- which will be more strictly enforced.

Cuban-Americans will still be able to travel to Cuba and send remittances, limiting the impact in Florida, where many Cuban emigres settled and where many of them turned out last year to vote for Trump.

Miami's Cuban-American population, members of which will greet Trump on Friday in the Manuel Artime Theater, have a reputation for diehard anti-communism and an opposition to thawing ties.

But in the Little Havana district on Thursday some -- even those who had fled oppression -- were philosophical about detente.

"Obama did the right thing," said 77-year-old Manuel Gonzales, who left the island in 2006. "The only person responsible for the embargo was Castro. We have to look forward, not back."

Trump's measures stop well short of upending Obama-era policies, which sought to end decades of isolation that did little to dislodge Fidel and Raul Castro's regime.

There are also expected to be exemptions for agricultural products as well as some air and sea operations.

But they signal a tougher stance that could slow the number of Americans who have begun to head to Cuba for Havana city breaks or on week-long beach holidays.

- 'Exceedingly disappointing' -Boosting travel was a key aim of Obama's painstaking effort to restore ties with the communist-run island, which included a landmark visit by the then-president in 2016.

Some 285,000 people visited the Caribbean country in 2016, up 74 percent over 2015, with Americans the third biggest group after Canadians and Cuban expats.

"New restrictions on engagement with Cuban economy only pushes Cuba to China and Russia who will gladly make up the difference," said Ben Rhodes, the architect of Obama's Cuba policy.

"Any limitations on travel hurt Cuban small business owners -- restaurants, shops, taxis -- that depend on travelers for revenue."

Engage Cuba, a group lobbying for an end to the embargo, estimates that 10,000 US jobs in aviation and the cruise business already depend on Cuba.

Even with carve outs, the new policy could pose problems for some US businesses, including hoteliers and airlines who have put on regular flights between the US and the Cuban capital.

In a statement ahead of Trump's announcement, Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson defended the firm's decision to invest in Cuba.

It recently entered a joint venture with GAESA to run the "Four Points by Sheraton" in Havana, investing "significant resources" to establish a foothold.

"It would be exceedingly disappointing to see the progress that has been made in the last two years halted and reversed by the administration," Sorenson said.

Trump accused Cuba of "cruel despotism" in May, which raised ironic cheers from rights supporters used to his cozying up to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other autocratic states.

But watchdog groups such as Human Rights Watch are skeptical of a return to the terms of the half-century Cold War stand-off, with its total trade embargo and no diplomatic ties.</s>President Donald Trump declared Friday he was restoring some travel and economic restrictions on Cuba that were lifted as part of the Obama administration's historic easing. He challenged the communist government of Raul Castro to negotiate a better deal for Cubans and Cuban-Americans.Announcing the rollback of President Barack Obama's diplomatic opening during a speech in Miami, Trump said Cuba had secured far too many concessions from the U.S. in the "misguided" deal but "now those days are over." He said penalties on Cuba would remain in place until its government releases political prisoners, stops abusing dissidents and respects freedom of expression."America has rejected the Cuban people's oppressors," Trump said in a crowded, sweltering auditorium. "They are rejected officially today - rejected."Though Trump's announcement stops short of a full reversal of the Cuba rapprochement, it targets the travel and economic engagement between the countries that has blossomed in the short time since relations were restored. The goal is to halt the flow of U.S. cash to the country's military and security services in a bid to increase pressure on Cuba's government.Embassies in Havana and Washington will remain open. U.S. airlines and cruise ships will still be allowed to serve the island 90 miles south of Florida. The "wet foot, dry foot" policy, which once let most Cuban migrants stay if they made it to U.S. soil but was terminated under Obama, will remain terminated. Remittances to Cuba won't be cut off.But individual "people-to-people" trips by Americans to Cuba, allowed by Obama for the first time in decades, will again be prohibited. And the U.S. government will police other such trips to ensure there's a tour group representative along making sure travelers are pursuing a "full-time schedule of educational exchange activities."Trump described his move as an effort to ramp up pressure to create a "free Cuba" after more than half a century of communism."I do believe that end is in the very near future," he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump announces new restrictions on travel and business with Cuba, reversing policies of Cuban Thaw, implemented during the tenure of President Barack Obama.