Cuban entrepreneurs urge U.S. senator to change policy on Cuba

HAVANA, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Cuban entrepreneurs on Thursday urged U.S. Senator Marco Rubio to visit Havana to understand with first-hand that economic development has slowed down due to new U.S. sanctions.

A letter to Rubio signed by several private business owners, which Xinhua had obtained, stated to Rubio, the main architect of the Cuba rollback, that regulations to limit individual trips by U.S. citizens to the Caribbean nation means less possibilities of economic expansion for the country's emerging private sector.

"We have been affected by your recent efforts to increasingly limit the capabilities of Cuban entrepreneurs, restricting individual trips by Americans to the island," said the letter signed by a number of restaurant owners in Havana.

According to Cuban entrepreneurs, more and more Cubans join the private sector in recent years and they exhorted Rubio to visit the island just as former president Barack Obama did in March 2016.

"Come and see Cuba and see how Cubans have increased their businesses and how we have become more attractive to American entrepreneurs," the letter said.

It also indicated that Cuban entrepreneurs are the "big losers" from this new policy as they have offered different services to hundreds of thousands of Americans since the historic opening initiated in 2015 by Obama.

Rubio, a Cuban-American politician who supports the trade embargo, has advised President Donald Trump to limit Washington's ties with the island nation.

The new measures published last month limit U.S. citizens' trips to the island and prohibit them from doing business with some 180 companies managed by the Cuban military.

According to official data, some 285,000 Americans visited Cuba in 2016, while this year the number is expected to surpass 400,000. Enditem