Havana_ Although the main agreements signed so far remain, the relations between Cuba and the United States have experienced a setback after President Donald Trump's arrival at the White House.
Long before his aggressive pronouncements against the Caribbean nation in his first speech on the state of the Union on January 30, Trump showed his government's interventionist intentions towards the largest of the Antilles.
This was on June 16, 2017, when he signed in Florida the Presidential National Security Memorandum on the Strengthening of the United States Policy towards Cuba, and with it the resurgence of Washington's hostility towards Havana.
In that speech, Trump ratified the validity of the economic, commercial and financial blockade that the northern nation has kept against the Antillean country for more than half a century, as well as its intention to intensify it.
Such policy persists today, for that reason the deputy director of the Hemispheric Studies Center and the United States, Olga Rosa González, considered that relations with the real estate magnate and his government will remain complex.
According to Gonzalez's statements, such position of the Republican ruler was evident since he arrived at the White House, and even before, and she referred to Trump's aggressive speech about the personality of the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro ( 1926-2016), after his death.
During the first year of the administration of this President, false accusations against Cuba were made regarding the alleged sonic attacks, the withdrawal of personnel from the Washington Embassy in Havana, and the expulsion of members of the Island's diplomatic mission in the United States.
This affects the execution of the agreements signed between the two countries and therefore the bilateral relations, which were reinstated in July 2015, the academic said.
In the administration of former President Barack Obama (2009-2017), both governments signed a number of agreements on prevention and confrontation of terrorist acts, against illicit drug trafficking, cyber security issues, human trafficking, trafficking in emigrants and cooperation against oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, among others.
Likewise, González referred to the recent signing of an executive order to keep open the jail at the Guantanamo naval base that Washington maintains against the will of the people and Government of the Caribbean island.
The detention center, which was opened in 2002 and had about 800 inmates - now there are 41 - is designated by international organizations as a place where torture and systematic violations of human rights were committed against the prisoners.
The return of the illegally occupied territory is one of the elements that Cuba demands for a true normalization of relations between Havana and Washington, the expert added.
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