By Vanessa Buschschl眉ter
In a fact sheet published on its website, the White House said it would end “economic practices that disproportionately benefit the Cuban government, military, intelligence, or security agencies at the expense of the Cuban people”.
US citizens are already banned from travelling to Cuba solely for tourism activities but there are 12 categories of travel which are permitted, including family and educational educational visits, humanitarian projects and sports competitions.
The new memorandum says compliance with the existing policy will be enforced through regular audits and “mandatory record-keeping of all travel-related transactions for at least five years”.
It also prohibits US citizens from doing business with GAESA, a conglomerate run by the Cuban military which owns many of Cuba’s hotels.
Tourism is one of the main sources of hard currency for the Cuban government, but numbers of visitors have dwindled as shortages on the Caribbean island have become more severe and several nationwide power cuts plunged it into the dark.