The Trump administration clamped down on US tourist visits to Cuba Tuesday, aiming to cut the flow of dollars to a country that Washington accuses of helping prop up Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The Treasury Department banned group educational travel and cruise ship and private yacht visits by Americans, taking aim at the most common ways US tourists and Cuban-Americans visit the Caribbean island.
The move could constitute a heavy hit on Cuba, which saw more than a quarter-million US visitors in the first four months of 2019, almost double the figure from a year earlier.
"The United States holds the Cuban regime accountable for its repression of the Cuban people, its interference in Venezuela, and its direct role in the man-made crisis led by Nicolas Maduro," the State Department said in a statement.
"Empowered by Cuba, he has created a humanitarian disaster that destabilizes the region." White House National Security Advisor John Bolton said the aim was to end what the administration considers "veiled tourism" to Cuba.
"We will continue to take actions to restrict the Cuban regime's access to US dollars," Bolton said on Twitter.
The Cuban government condemned the move, which could cost the country's economy tens of millions of dollars a year in lost income.
"They seek to stifle the economy and damage the standard of living of Cubans to wrest political concessions," said Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez in a tweeted statement. "They'll fail again."
"This has nothing to do with empowering the Cuban people and has everything to do with empowering a handful of people in Florida that have never even been to Cuba."