President-elect Donald Trump’s threat Monday to “terminate” the U.S. detente with Cuba could trigger opposition from some Republican lawmakers and corporate leaders who favor continued engagement with Havana. Since 2014, when President Barack Obama began to normalize relations with the island, the United States has taken numerous steps to increase commercial travel, commerce and the flow of information to Cuba. On Monday, the first regularly scheduled commercial flight in more than 50 years from the US to Havana landed while passengers aboard the American Airlines jet cheered.
Following Fidel Castro’s death Friday at age 90, top aides to Trump signaled that the Cuban government must move toward enacting greater freedoms for its people and giving Americans more in return if it wants to keep the warmer U.S. ties that Obama initiated. Castro’s younger brother, 85-year-old Raul Castro, took control in 2006, and later negotiated with Obama to restore diplomatic relations.
