TRUMP FACES TOUGH TASK UNWINDING OBAMA CUBA POLICY
Jun 2, 12:50 PM EDT
BY MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN AND VIVIAN SALAMA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA (AP) -- President Barack Obama's 2014 opening with Cuba helped funnel American travel dollars into military-linked tourism conglomerates even as state security agents waged a fierce crackdown on dissent.
The rapprochement also poured hundreds of millions in U.S. spending into privately owned businesses on the island, supercharging the growth of an entrepreneurial middle-class independent of the communist state. It opened a new market for American corporations, with JetBlue and American Airlines operating from gleaming new Havana offices and tens of thousands of private bed-and-breakfasts listed on Airbnb.
Internet access became an affordable reality for hundreds of thousands of Cubans as President Raul Castro met a pledge to Obama and opened nearly 400 public Wi-Fi access points across the country. Meanwhile, longtime enemies separated by 90 miles of ocean struck agreements to cooperate on issues ranging from human trafficking to oil spills.
This is the complex scenario facing President Donald Trump as Cuban-American legislators and lobbyists pressure him to fulfill his campaign promise to undo Obama's deal with Cuba. The administration is close to announcing a new policy that would prohibit business with the Cuban military while maintaining the full diplomatic relations restored by Obama, according to a Trump administration official and a person involved in the ongoing policy review.
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