Trump Admin Announces New Cuba Travel Restrictions

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The Trump administration has announced new Cuba travel restrictions which will impact how people travel from the US to the island.

The US Department of Transportation has suspended public charter flights to all Cuban cities other than Havana. Public charter operators have been given 60-days to discontinue their affected flights.

There will also be a limit placed on the number of charter flights to Havana. The DOT will limit the round-trip flights to 3,600, the same number of authorized flights in 2019.

"Today's action will prevent the Cuban regime from benefitting from expanded charter service in the wake of the October 25, 2019, action suspending scheduled commercial air service to Cuba's airports other than Havana. Today's action will further restrict the Cuban regime's ability to obtain revenue, which it uses to finance its ongoing repression of the Cuban people and its unconscionable support for dictator Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela," said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement.

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart also applauded the new restrictions.

The administration knows that the regime profits handsomely from travel and tourism dollars, using them to oppress the Cuban people such as imprisoned activist Jose Daniel Ferrer, and to assist the Maduro regime in oppressing the Venezuelan people as well. I commend the administration's concerted, multiagency efforts to cut off revenue to the Cuban people's oppressors," he said in a statement.

Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell denounced the new ban.

"Many Cuban Americans that live in South Florida and in my district depend on these flights to reunite with their families back in Cuban cities like Santiago de Cuba, Varadero and Camagüey," said Mucarsel-Powell. "The new changes in policy for charter flights to Cuba will only serve to separate Cuban families. While I strongly support the use of every diplomatic tool possible to pressure the Cuban government to end their repression and influence in Venezuela, I strongly believe we should not do so by punishing the Cuban people and their U.S. relatives."