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Two U.S. companies had applied to deliver cargo flights to ship
small or personal parcels containing food, medicine, hygiene and
medical supplies, arguing the deliveries were humanitarian in
nature.
The Transportation Department said the State Department
determined the flights did not fall within exemption guidelines
and said they "would not be in the foreign policy interests of
the United States."
The administration effective Oct. 13 suspended the authority of
U.S. and foreign carriers to operate Cuban-U.S. charter flights.
One U.S. operator, Skyway, argued the flights should be
permitted to address coronavirus pandemic impacts, including
significant shortages of food and medical supplies for Cubans,
leading residents to grow their own food and shop at
government-run stores with exorbitant prices.
The Transportation Department suspended private charter flights
to Cuba to increase American economic pressure on the Cuban
government after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sought the
suspension.
"The Castro regime uses tourism and travel funds to finance its
abuses and interference in Venezuela. Dictators cannot be
allowed to benefit from U.S. travel," Pompeo said in August.
Trump, a Republican, has clamped down on Cuba following the
historic move by Democratic predecessor Barack Obama to reopen
U.S.-Cuba ties.
The Trump administration tightened restrictions on U.S. travel
and remittances to Cuba and sanctioned shipments of Venezuelan
oil to the island.
The administration also made it harder for Cubans to visit
family in Florida by reducing its Havana embassy to skeletal
staffing and shutting down the consular section in the wake of
mysterious illnesses among its diplomats.
Democratic President-elect Joe Biden said during the campaign
for the White House that he would promptly reverse policies on
Cuba enacted by Trump that “have inflicted harm on the Cuban
people and done nothing to advance democracy and human rights.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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