Cubans enjoy Guanabo beach in Havana, on July 3, 2019. - With the heat of the summer, Cubans go to the beach, qhich access for all is a constitutional right, but limited by the lack of transport and the growing pressure of tourism. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE / AFP)
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has condemned US President Donald Trump’s administration for its decision to suspend flights from USA to Cuba.
The suspension, which goes into effect December 10, was announced by the Department of Transportation and affects nine airports on the island nation.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked the Transportation Department for the suspension as a means to “further the administration’s policy of strengthening the economic consequences to the Cuban regime for its ongoing repression of the Cuban people and its support for (President) Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.”
The Trump administration accuses Cuba of aiding and abetting crisis-wracked Venezuela, which is Havana’s closest ally.
The EFF said in a statement: “This is pure imperialism, bullying and an infringement of the Cuban right to exist equally among nations of the world. Why does the USA feel it to be its place to speak and act on behalf of Cubans?”
It further called on African countries to implement direct flights to Cuba and stop depending on the “insane” US president.
“We also call on South Africans and people of the world in general to defy Donald Trump and plan their 2019 vacation and holidays in Cuba.”
“We wish Cuba more strength. Sending best wishes to the Venezuelan people to resist any and all forms of US imperialist manipulation and interference in their domestic affairs,” it said.
Cash-strapped Cuba depends heavily on tourism earnings to fund its government, the only one-party Communist state in the Americas.
Havana already has trimmed its 2019 tourism target by 15 percent to 4.3 million visitors.
The United States still maintains its economic embargo on Havana, which only can be ended by the US Congress.
But it has allowed exceptions, such as cruise ship visits, which must have an educational underpinning in order to go to the island.
Some 900,000 tourists visited the island on cruise ships last year, and almost 40 percent were American, according to official data.
The charter flights on which many Cuban-Americans travel to Cuba from Miami are not affected by the change.
Commercial flights to Cuba began under the Obama administration in 2016.
Read the full statement below:
Additional reporting by AFP
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