Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump’s new policy on Cuba will strengthen Cuban citizens while undermining the country’s military, The Washington Examiner reports.
“When they get there, they have to spend their money with individual Cubans who have private businesses. We want to put them in a privileged position so American travelers to Cuba will have to spend their money with them instead of the Cuban military”, Rubio told CBS on Sunday.
On Friday, Trump announced that he was reversing many of the policies enacted by former President Barack Obama with the Caribbean nation. Travel by Americans to Cuba will still be possible, but with new restrictions that require U.S. travelers do business with individual Cubans and not their military.
The new policy also requires U.S. travelers to Cuba to use certain cruise lines and airlines unassociated with Cuban military operations. In addition, it requires travelers to keep “full and accurate records of all transactions related to authorized travel”.
Rubio said Obama’s shift towards a more open relationship with Cuba helped to enrich their military by allowing too many concessions.
“Those concessions have allowed the Cuban military, which controls upwards of 50 to 60 percent of their economy, to enrich itself and to tighten its grip through a monopoly that they control. And, we’re reversing that, the President is reversing that”, Rubio concluded.
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