The last US cruise liner to stop over in
Cuba sailed out again Wednesday as stepped-up US sanctions against the
Communist-run island came into force.
Cubans who have welcomed and benefited from such visits as part of a
rapproachment with the United States under Barack Obama in 2015 and 2016
watched sadly as the Empress of the Seas headed out to sea.
Passengers waved from the deck of the huge white vessel and waved small red, white, and blue Cuban flags.
The Bahamian-flagged ship operated by US company Royal Caribbean Cruises
docked in Havana on Tuesday just as the new sanctions were announced,
taking many passengers by surprise. It was supposed to stay for two
days, but has now left early.
President Donald Trump ordered a halt to these cruise ship stopovers and
a clamp-down on US visas for visiting Cuba as part of a strategy to cut
the flow of dollars to a country that Washington accuses of helping
prop up Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Mario Diaz, a 19 year old disc jockey waiting for a bus as he watched
the cruise ship depart, said Obama's visit here a year after the
longtime Cold War foes restored relations in 2015 was an unforgettable
event and one that brought great hope.
"All this is so sad, really," said Lopez, "for Trump to come in and turn everything back from one day to the next."
Fernando Santana, a 50-year-old fisherman, remembers using his cell
phone to film the arrival of the first US cruise ship back in 2016. He
recalls how Cubans and visitors alike shouted with joy as blasts from
its fog horn echoed across the port of Havana.
Santana said Obama had worked hard to bring Americans and Cubans
together. "Then a donkey came along, and with its feet it kicked down
everything that the other guy had done with his head," said Santana.
Americans who were on the departing ship said they knew nothing about
the new US sanctions. Some found out while walking around Havana during
the abbreviated port call.
"Right or wrong, we know nothing about it as American citizens. It was a
total surprise to us," passenger Linda Mensure from Texas told AFP.
"We have got people scheduled to come next week and now they won't be
able to. It's sad," said Jim Johnson, from Florida, referring to
vacationers who had bought tickets for cruises that were to include Cuba
on the itinerary.
- 'Very upset! -
"I'm one of hundreds of very angry passengers aboard a cruise ship in
the middle of the Caribbean," said Cindy Hamilton, a nurse from Terre
Haute, Indiana, said in a tweet. "We all planned this cruise
anticipating our stop in Cuba. Very upset!"
The Treasury Department banned group educational travel, cruise ship and
private yacht visits by Americans, taking aim at the most common ways
US tourists and Cuban-Americans visit the Caribbean island.
The move could constitute a heavy hit on Cuba, which saw more than a
quarter-million US visitors in the first four months of 2019, almost
double the figure from a year earlier.
The Cruise Lines International Association said the new US measure will
affect nearly 800,000 reservations that were already made or being
finalized.
Cuba and the United States restored ties in 2015 and Obama himself
visited Havana in a historic presidential trip in March 2016, meeting
with then-president Raul Castro.
Weeks later, the ban was lifted on US commercial ship visits, opening
the door for the Caribbean cruise ship industry to expand stops in Cuba.
American tourism in Cuba had taken off after Obama moved to ease the
half-century trade embargo against the communist government in 2014 --
even though continuing restrictions kept visits nominally in the realm
of cultural and artistic exchanges and business dealings.
However, the Obama initiative was attacked by Trump, who began restricting relations within months of taking power in 2017.
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