our finance is collapsing. we have no house, we have nothing. but they have money to build hotels, and they have us starving. this map shows where the protests are happening. they started in the capital, havana, and quickly spread across the country. the protesters are unhappy with food shortages, high prices and the authorities handling of the pandemic. during 2020, the economy shrank by 11%, partly because of the new sanctions imposed during the trump administration. you may remember president obama s policy on cuba brought about a thaw in relations between the two countries, but president trump overturned this in 2017. dr stephen wilkinson, an expert on us cuba relations, has more on this. massive amounts of investment went into cuba to develop tourism - for particularly american -
there are a lot of immigrants in florida who come from not only cuba but these countries in south america that have suffered because of socialist policies. he is trying to drive home that point, like, you don t want to take over of the health care system by the government. melissa: jessica, i think that brings up an interesting nuance point out florida, we do something so many people missed in the last election. they said trump is going to lose florida because he is a racist, and hispanic voters don t like him. here it turns out there is a huge cuban community that came out for him because they didn t like the former president s policy on cuba. i wonder if both sides realize how a nuance to florida is, in that venezuela, like she said, isn t an accident. there are a lot of migrants from countries in central and south america who at live in florida and are responding to what he saying. they are coming from places that were chaotic. adding up to that argument,
again, you just have to look at the response from the castro regime. they are actually quite concerned. chris, there are a lot of options that were put on the table. the important is what i just told you. what we always taught, what we ve always said, it makes no sense that if you believe that helping that you are helping the cuban people like president obama did by helping to fund the repressive machinery and the intelligence services that are repressing the cuban people? well, obviously, that s what president obama s policy did. this refers to that. this will have stricter control as the law requires on travel. this will not allow folks to help in which the cuban military and the cuban intelligence services. president obama is demanding the return of fugitives from u.s. law? frankly, terrorists who are harbored by the cuban regime. if the regime were doing all those things, all the sanctions go away. the law is very clear. all they have to do it in cuba for all the sanctions to g
still around. i think that will be the test. when he s gone, what the cuban people decide on going forward. there is an argument for going this route. putting economic freedom ahead of political freedom. we ve seen it in other parts of the world, southeast asia south asia east asia i should say welcome to china. in china, we still have human rights problems. i m talking about places like south korea and japan where we sent economic freedom will lead to political freedom. it s worked. it hasn t worked in cuba partly because we are on our own with his embargo. cuba is still trading with the rest of the world. they are just not trading with the u.s. that s part of the reasons why the policy is not been effective. chris: really quickly? he based this on something really quite clever, which is so much of the economy is owned by the cuban military, the intelligent, the security forces. basically, he forbade financial transactions with those particular entities, which
the white house a short time ago after a brief trip to miami, a friendly audience, to make good on a campaign pledge to get a better deal from cuba. effective immediately, i am canceling the last administration s complete plea a one-sided deal with cuba. before a jubilant crowd with the strugglers executive pen, president trump moved to tighten the screws on the castro regime, rolling back obama era easements on cuba policy. we challenge cuba to come to the table with a new agreement that is in the best interests of both their people and our people and also of cuban-americans. the new policy reinstates the tourism ban on cuba, maintains the embargo, and prohibits americans from doing business with cuban military and government owned businesses. while the president says he s canceling to obama and deal, he stopped short of full repeal,