St. Lucia Prime Minister Criticizes Trump's Cuba Policy

St. Lucian Prime Minister Allen Chastanet has lent his voice to the debate surrounding United States President Trump’s recent decision to discontinue what he claimed was a “one-sided” policy with Cuba.

A few days ago, Trump announced at a public gathering that he would, effective immediately, cancel the former Barack Obama administration’s policy and instate a new program that would begin with “strictly enforcing US law.”

In his last term in office, Obama had moved to begin the normalization of relations between the two countries after a several-decade-long dispute. The measure had brought about a newfound freedom of U.S. citizens to travel to the island.

Mr. Chastanet told reporters, “I was hoping that after 50 years, that they would have been able to move on and I saw that President Obama was moving in a particular direction. It is the prerogative of the current president to make whatever changes he wants to. But I am hoping that this is just another opportunity to create more dialogue and I am hoping that level heads will prevail, because I am certainly one of those who would like to see Cuba move on.”

“I would like to see Cuba and the Cuban people benefit from the economic development and opportunities that we all get, and I am also one who believes that a strong Cuba is good for the rest of the Caribbean,” he added.

The prime minister lamented the longstanding conflict between the two countries which he said remains a “vexing issue” that needing to be resolved. “I was really hoping that we were past that…,” he said.

Among the reasons for his decision, Trump had stated that the Obama administration’s policy only allowed the Cuban regime to benefit from increased tourism.

According to CNBC News, a document released ahead of Trump’s announcement stated that the White House’s new policy directs the US Treasury Department to end a common method of visiting the communist nation by stopping individual people-to-people travel.

Tourism is technically banned by the U.S. embargo on Cuba, but under the Obama Administration, relaxed regulations allowed Americans to visit Cuba under people-to-people travel.

Trump’s policy restricts this form of travel to the island for individuals. Americans pursuing this type of travel would have to go in groups, CNBC said.

Source: St. Lucia News Online