The United States may have announced a raft of measures that could hamper investment in Cuba in a bid to ramp up pressure on the communist government, but in Havana life is trundling along with the usual serenity.
The peace is only broken by the mention of US President Donald Trump’s name.
“It’s a constant threat, I think Trump is a complicated person who likes to hold the people in an iron grip. That’s his way,” said Mercedes Martinez, an 85-year-old teacher.
Washington on Wednesday announced new restrictions on US travel and remittances to the Caribbean island nation, and gave the green light to lawsuits in US courts against companies operating in properties seized since the late Fidel Castro’s communist revolution in 1959.
That brought a stern rebuke from Havana and criticism from the EU — Cuba’s largest foreign investor.
“These were legally nationalized,” said Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez in reference to the seized properties.
Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton said on Wednesday that the US would bar Americans from travelling to Cuba except to visit family, reversing the loosening of restrictions under Barack Obama that had started to open the cash-strapped island to US tourism.
Remittances sent to Cuba will be limited to just $1,000 per quarter per individual.
“These new measures will help steer American dollars away from the Cuban regime,” said Bolton.
Many Cubans rely on such international transfers to supplement their earnings.
Threat to tourism
Cuba is in desperate need of capital to boost a stuttering economy.
It attracted only $2 billion in investments in 2017, well short of the $5 billion needed to spark growth.
Cubans’ primary concern is a shortage of food, exacerbated in no small part by US sanctions first applied in 1962.
The latest US measures won’t help and could hit the tourism industry hard.
The Habana Libre hotel in the central Vedado neighborhood of the capital is a case in point. Formerly the Havana Hilton, it was nationalized during the revolution and could be subject to a claim in US courts.