White House Confirms Trump’s Speech on Cuba in Miami on Friday
HAVANA TIMES – The White House today confirmed that President Donald Trump will deliver a speech in Miami on US policy toward Cuba tomorrow.
The confirmation, made by the second spokesman of White House in the daily press conference, comes after days of speculation in Washington about the announcement of a hardening of the policy of Barack Obama.
Obama softened aspects of the decades-long embargo on the island after the United States and Cuba resumed diplomatic relations in 2015 after more than half a century of rupture.
It is speculated that Trump may now limit US citizens travel to the island and prohibit companies from doing business with sectors linked to the Cuban military. However, it is assumed that it will not break relations.
“It’s going to be an announcement that will benefit the United States and the American people and the people of Cuba,” Carlos Diaz-Rosillo, a Cuban-American adviser to Trump and director of policy and coordination at the White House, said in Miami.
“I don´t want to give more details because the president comes precisely to give that announcement and it’s not my role to say what he is going to say in less than 24 hours,” said the spokesperson on the sidelines of the Conference for Prosperity and Security in Central America being held until Friday in Miami.
In recent days, lawmakers, travel and other companies, political and economic analysts, as well as human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have urged Trump not to back down in their approach to Cuba.
Having previously supporting the thaw when he was just a candidate for the Republican nomination, in the run-up to last November’s presidential election campaign, Trump later opened the door to reversing Obama’s policy.
His secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said in the Senate this week that the Trump administration believes that more pressure must be put on the Cuban government to make progress on human rights, since Obama’s policy has had no results in that area. He pointed to the need to ensure that the rapprochement is not financing the Executive of Raul Castro.
Forbes obviously was exaggerating when it said that the average salary for a Cuban is $30 per month. That is almost exactly the salary of a school teacher – which is well above the averageof all Cubans. Similarly the claim that “Castro” – one assumes Fidel Castro, died a billionaire, it might of been more accurate to write ‘multi-millionaire’.
Cuba, the government, is a racket. Castro died a billionaire. According to Forbes magazine the average salary for a Cuban is $30 per month. Just last year Russia agreed to modernize Cuba’s military. Cuban people need to shape their destiny instead of going down the same bad road.
The Castros should have responded in kind to the efforts made by the Obama administration towards improving relations.