U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's threats to reverse the Obama administration's historic re-engagement with Cuba could drive a new wedge between Washington and Latin America, a region already suspicious of the next American leader over his rhetoric on immigration and trade.
Mr. Trump on Monday said he would roll back the U.S.'s improved relations with Cuba forged by President Barack Obama unless Cuba's Communist government offers "a better deal," following statements from his aides that he wants to pressure Havana for more democratic reform.
"If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal," Mr. Trump wrote in a message on Twitter.
Any undoing of the detente between Washington and Havana would be viewed as a big step back in the region, not only by leftist allies of Cuba like Venezuela and Bolivia but also by conservative governments in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Colombia. It would also likely complicate regional cooperation on a range of issues, from immigration to security and anti-drug efforts.
"It would be a grave error by Mr. Trump," said former Ecuadorean Foreign Relations Minister Jose Ayala-Lasso. "It wouldn't only be a measure that would affect relations between Cuba and the United States, but I think all of Latin America that promoted a normalization of these relations would feel rejected and offended."
The White House on Monday warned against reversing U.S. engagement with Cuba. Press Secretary Josh Earnest said any attempt by Mr. Trump to disengage from Cuba will be much more difficult to pull off than it may appear, citing agreements to allow U.S. cruise ships to dock in Cuba and a U.S. hotelier to operate in the country. On Monday the first commercial flight from the U.S. landed in Havana, part of plans for some 110 daily flights from the U.S to Cuba.
"Unwinding [the new policy] is not as easy as just the stroke of a pen because there are consequences for doing that," Mr. Earnest said. "There will be an economic impact in the United States and in Cuba for unraveling that policy."
A senior administration official said the U.S. policy toward Cuba before December 2014, when the two countries announced plans to re-establish relations, "isolated the U.S. in its own hemisphere."
"The new policy renewed our leadership in the Americas and brought with it a new spirit of cooperation among the U.S. and its neighbors," the official said. "Any reversal or neglect of this position could absolutely lead to an erosion of our leadership in the region and a return to isolation among our neighbors."
Messrs. Obama and Trump discussed Cuba in their 90-minute meeting at the White House on Nov. 10 and during a 45-minute phone call on Saturday. Some administration officials believe Mr. Trump, a New York businessman, ultimately won't reverse Mr. Obama's policy.
The U.S. trade embargo on Cuba has complicated Washington's relations with the hemisphere for decades. Like Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East, Latin America is largely tied together through language and culture, compelling countries to often try to show solidarity with one another. A history of U.S. interference in the region has also long engendered a shared resentment.
Mr. Trump has already caused deep unease in Latin America. A cornerstone of his campaign was a pledge to build a border wall with Mexico and force it to pay—rhetoric many in the region saw as humiliating. Officials in Mexico and Central Americans countries have also expressed worries that potential deportations of illegal immigrants would strain local economies.
Mr. Trump has also pledged to revisit the North American Free Trade Agreement, which ties together Mexico, Canada and the U.S., and withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which involves Mexico, Peru and Chile. Already, Peru and Chile have started to look to China for further trade deals.
"It looks like Latin America is turning into a favorite punching bag for Trump's tweets, and here we can include Mexicans, the wall, and now Cuba," said Matthew Taylor, a Latin America expert at American University in Washington.
Not everyone opposes Mr. Trump's tactic of trying to wring more concessions from the Cuban government, however. Guillermo Fariñas, a Cuban dissident who was critical of President Obama's Cuban policy, said he supports Mr. Trump's attempt to pressure Havana to stop its crackdown on opponents and become democratic.
"I think President-elect Trump is on the right path in the sense that the Cuban government should provide more concessions like the U.S. government did," he said. "The Cuban government has not given any concessions."
Supporters of easing ties say the longstanding U.S. embargo against Cuba failed to force the island's totalitarian government to yield and even gave it a ready excuse for its failures.
Obama administration officials have said their hope is that increasing contact between the countries will eventually create pressure for democratic change, but no one expects an opening soon.
"The history of the relationship has been that the more the U.S. demands, the more Cuba closes down," said Eric Olsen, Associate Director of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.
The detente has proved popular in the region. In 2016, 74% of Latin Americans said they had a good or very good opinion of the U.S. under Mr. Obama, up from 58% in 2008 at the end of George W. Bush's administration, according to Chilean-based pollster Latinobarómetro.
By contrast, only 8% of people surveyed in Latin America said they wanted Mr. Trump to become president, according to an October global survey released in October by WIN and Gallup International.
For ordinary Cubans, the opening between their government and the U.S. has provided a glimmer of hope that someday things here would change. And increased travel and remittances have been a godsend to many struggling Cubans.
"If Obama's promises are stopped, it would hurt us a lot. They gave us hope that we could travel, have jobs that pay decent wages and lead a better life," said Deymar Rodríguez, a 24-year-old schoolteacher.
—Carol E. Lee in Washington contributed to this article.
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