Background The decision was the culmination of Trump's hardline stance on Cuba. The Trump administration imposed new restrictions on travel to Cuba from the US in 2019, disallowing people-to-people educational group travel, one of the most popular exemptions to the ban on US tourism to Cuba. The US also blacklisted Fincimex last June — a Cuban military-controlled firm that processes remittances for Western Union — and banned US companies from dealing with the company. This move was designed to eliminate most remittances from, in particular, Cuban Americans to Cubans. In same month, it ordered Marriott International, at that time the only US hotel company in Cuba, to shut down its Four Points Sheraton hotel in Havana by August 31. Marriott was also prevented from opening other planned hotels. Marriott first entered Cuba in 2016, following permission from the US government. Its licence was reviewed and renewed in 2018.