Cubans now fret over foe-turned-friend US

The death of ‘El Comandante’, however, has added to worries among Cubans that US President-elect Donald Trump will slam the door shut on nascent trade and travel ties, undoing two years of detente between the estranged neighbours. 

Trump has struck a very different tone from Obama, who reached an agreement two years ago with Castro’s younger brother President Raul Castro to end half a century of hostilities. Late in his election campaign, Trump sought to reassure the Cuban-American vote in Florida that he was firm in his opposition to the Castros, and pledged that, if elected, he would close down the newly re-opened US embassy in Havana.

Earlier on, in the primaries, he said he thought resorting diplomatic ties with Cuba was  fine, but that Obama ought to have cut a better deal. Having won the presidency, it is hard to know what Trump’s approach to Cuba will be. 

After the 90-year-old Castro’s death, Obama called him a  “singular figure,” while Trump described the bearded communist revolutionary as a “brutal  dictator.” 

Raul never gave much ground to the Obama administration in terms of liberalising Cuba’s one party political system. But many Cubans reckon they could do with their late leader’s charisma and way with words to counter Trump’s bombast. 

“With ‘El Comandante’ gone, I am a little fearful of what could happen because of Trump’s way of thinking and acting,” said Yaneisi Lara, a 36-year-old Havana street vendor and flower seller. “He could set back and block everything that’s been going on, all the things Obama has done, and he did a lot, managing to get the US closer to Cuba,” she said, admitting she would  consider moving to the United States herself. 

Without giving any specifics, Trump said on Saturday that his administration would “do all it can” once he takes office on January 20 to help increase freedom and prosperity for Cuban people after the death Castro. “Trump is the polar opposite of Obama,” said burly Havana taxi driver Pablo Fernandez Martinez, 39, as he hustled for work. 

Life in Cuba remains hard for its educated but underemployed people, but engagement with the United States has brought in more dollars. Martinez fears that could dry up once Trump moves into the White House.