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Cuba-US relations backslide five years after landmark thaw

Cuban President Raul Castro raises US President Barack Obama's hand in Havana on March 21, 2016. [Photo: AFP]

Five years ago this week, Washington and Havana surprised the world when they agreed to reopen diplomatic ties severed in 1961, but relations have since slid downhill as if on a fresh layer of Cold War ice.

United States President Donald Trump has regularly assailed Cuba on Twitter and tightened sanctions over the Communist-run island's human rights record and its support for Venezuela's socialist regime.

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