The US is no longer allowing people-to-people educational travel to Cuba. The Trump administration says that the Caribbean country has a "destabilizing role" in the region.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Espinosa
Advertisement
The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed new travel restrictions on US citizens traveling to Cuba, including a ban on educational and recreational travel to the Caribbean country from the United States.
The Treasury Department said that the US will no longer allow "group people-to-people educational travel" and also banned the US export of boats and private planes to the Caribbean country.
Travel agencies have been using the "educational travel" permit since the restoration of full diplomatic relations in 2014 to group tourists into "educational groups" to qualify for entry into Cuba.
The Trump administration had already banned individual visits and limited commercial interaction with Cuba. The new restrictions appear to leave commercial airline flights and visits for university groups, academic research, journalism and professional meetings unaffected.
Response to Cuba's 'destabilizing role'
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the bans punish Cuba's "destabilizing role" in the region, including Cuba's support for the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
"Cuba continues to play a destabilizing role in the Western Hemisphere, providing a communist foothold in the region and propping up U.S. adversaries in places like Venezuela and Nicaragua by fomenting instability, undermining the rule of law, and suppressing democratic processes," he said.
"This administration has made a strategic decision to reverse the loosening of sanctions and other restrictions on the Cuban regime. These actions will help to keep US dollars out of the hands of Cuban military, intelligence, and security services."
The
Havana's collapsing colonial charm
In Cuba, the government guarantees everybody a place to live, but away from the tourist sites, the majority of the houses are in stark disrepair. The empty spaces are often converted into parking lots or playgrounds.
Image: DW/S. Derks
Colonial past
A view of a street in central Havana, showing the reminders of a prosperous colonial past.
Image: DW/S. Derks
Warning sign
"Danger of collapse": a sign warns pedestrians walking on the sidewalk below an old house near the Malecon esplanade, which stretches around the seafront in Havana.
Image: DW/S. Derks
A temporary abode
Ricardo García Peréz, Mario Ramos Leyva and Maidany García Bernandez live in an old factory that produced medicines that they inherited from Maidany's grandfather. Lacking the money to maintain the 200 square meter (2,150 square feet) building, they're now looking to sell it.
Image: DW/S. Derks
Hanging in there
Alcario Labrada Añala, 73, works as a guard at a parking lot. Some of the houses collapsed more than a decade ago. Inhabitants were given an empty room and construction materials to convert it into a living space. To this day, they don't have property rights.
Image: DW/S. Derks
Dilapidated charm
This big colonial building in Havana is in danger of collapsing and has been sold to a neighboring ballet school whose proprietors want to renovate the building. Most of the people in the 52 housing units have been moved to shelters or new houses. Alexis Vell Williams keeps an eye on the house of his aunt to prevent looters from getting in.
Image: DW/S. Derks
Cramped quarters
Not everyone is fortunate after a building collapses. On the patio of a shelter downtown, the Alrevez family relates how they've lived with four children in a 9 square meter room for the past two years. The children sleep on the floor, while the couple sleeps upstairs on a constructed floor. Some of the families in the shelter have been waiting for a house for more than 13 years.
Image: DW/S. Derks
Still waiting
Luisa García's house started collapsing eight years ago. In the meantime all the other families in the building have moved, but she is still waiting to be evacuated. She lives in the house with her son and husband. The house is almost beyond repair. The roof is leaking and rotten and the house could fall apart at any time.
Image: DW/S. Derks
Building a future
As space is scarce in Havana's old center, the collapsed spaces are often converted for different purposes. In this building, the space is now being used as an open-air workshop for mechanics.
Image: DW/S. Derks
Caught up in the revolution
Women walk past the ruins of a house in the Vedado neighborhood in Havana. The large houses were home to wealthy families who were caught up in the revolution that ousted the government in 1959. As opponents of communism, most of them abandoned the houses and fled to Miami.
