Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar
Both the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Treasury Department must investigate several companies that have recently opened with the principal purpose to evade sanctions on the communist regime in Cuba, said U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL).
“I request that the State and Treasury departments look into these violations and take appropriate action,” the congresswoman wrote in an Aug. 21 letter sent to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
These companies, she wrote, make a mockery of sanctions on Cuba and include those created to offer services such as tourism packages, logistics, door-to-door shipping, and car sales.
“My constituents want their government to look into this flaunting of the law,” said Rep. Salazar in a related statement. “We cannot permit possible accomplices of tyranny to enrich themselves at the expense of the Cuban people’s struggle for freedom. Every dollar that slips through sanctions undermines U.S. policy and strengthens the hand of oppressors in Havana.”
The lawmaker also pointed out in her letter that behind the façade of regular businessmen, the reality is that most of these enterprises have been founded by individuals closely connected to the regime.
For example, she cited the case of Jorge Javier Rodríguez Cabrera, who was recently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It has been revealed that Cabrera is a close associate of one of the grandchildren of Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz, a Cuban retired politician and general who served from 2011 to 2021 as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the one-party communist state, and as president of Cuba between 2008 and 2018, succeeding his brother Fidel Castro.
“It is not unthinkable that many of these companies have been created with the knowledge and consent of the communist regime,” Rep. Salazar wrote. “Please look into this matter and take the appropriate legal action.”