Trump's Tough Cuba Line Scores Big In Little Havana

MIAMI, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Jun, 2017 ) - President Donald Trump's new measures restricting some trade and travel with Cuba did not go very far in practical terms, but they made a big noise in the place most eager to hear it: Miami's Little Havana neighborhood.

In return, the Cuban-Americans who turned out to welcome him to the symbolic heart of the exile community rewarded Trump with what in turn he seems to want the most: wild applause. Hundreds packed the rickety Manuel Artime Theater -- from recently arrived dissidents fleeing Raul Castro's rule, to older veterans of failed CIA covert operations and the new generation of Cuban-American US lawmakers.

Back in Washington, Trump's critics warned that his clampdown on dealings with Cuban military-run tour firms and on private US travel to the communist-run island would only impoverish ordinary Cubans and threaten diplomatic rapprochement.

American private sector firms and business groups warned that he was cutting off avenues for investment that could only provide more opportunities for Cubans -- and profits and jobs for companies north of the Florida strait.

Still other observers noted that -- for all the hype about the reversal of the painstaking efforts towards rapprochement by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama -- the new measures amounted to little more than a commitment to enforce existing laws.

But here, the resounding speeches by Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Senator Marco Rubio struck home.

The crowd chanted "Viva Cube Libre," sang "God Bless America" and cried out: "Thank you Mr President.

We love you." Before his election campaign last year, Trump had no history of supporting the cause of Cuban freedom -- and since coming to power he has embraced other authoritarian regimes without much pause to consider their human rights records.

But during the 2016 race to the White House he met veterans of Brigade 2506, the units of exiled Cubans covertly trained by the CIA to launch the ill-fated 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion in a failed bid to oust then Cuban strongman Fidel Castro.

The veterans were again at the theater -- named after one of their own -- on Friday to welcome Trump and cheer as he made good on his promise to them to revise Obama's outreach strategy and demand Cuba make good on democratic reform.

"The change is not radical. Trump did not reverse Obama's policy, but made adjustments. Much of Obama's policy remains the same," said Sebastian Arcos, associate director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.

For Arcos, Trump was making a gesture to a community that came behind him in the election and a lot of the hype around his visit was whipped up by local leaders for political reasons -- but his decision carried symbolic weight.