The Trump administration’s latest restrictions on travel to Cuba will cap the number of charter flights starting in two weeks, on March 10.
The move is intended to inflict “economic pressure on the Cuban regime,” according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It will limit all charter flights to José Martí International Airport, located in Havana.
Some airline operators have already reduced flights. The U.S. Department of Transportation is implementing the measure.
With the elimination of many charter flights, thousands of Cuban Americans will face more difficulties when traveling to visit relatives in destinations outside the capital.
One Cuban American who will be affected is Annia Rosa Balcazar. Balcazar, who is from Holguin, a city in eastern Cuba, said driving from Havana can take more than nine hours on poorly maintained and often dangerous roads.
She had planned to visit family this summer but now is unsure. “It just made it harder and more expensive for us to be able to go,” she said. “We still have family that we want to go see and take things to.”
