The trip to Cuba Beyoncé and Jay-Z was part of an educational exchange

The trip to Cuba Beyoncé and Jay-Z was part of an educational exchange

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Beyonce and Jay-Z during his trip to Cuba in early April.

Photo: AP Images

The controversial trip to Cuba that made ​​Beyonce and Jay-Z last week had been approved by the Treasury Department of the United States because it was an "educational trip", officials of that governmental entity.
"We understand that the community in question went to Cuba for educational exchange organized by a body approved by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury Department (OFAC, for its acronym in English) to sponsor and organize group programs promote contact with the Cuban people, "a letter issued Tuesday by Alastair M. Fitzpayne, deputy secretary of the Treasury for legislative affairs.
The document was addressed to the Republican congressman from Florida Mario Diaz-Balart, who had asked to OFAC-body to monitor compliance with trade and financial sanctions with other countries to investigate whether the couple had the necessary authorization to stay four days in Havana with their mothers, several assistants and bodyguards.
"The tourism industry in Cuba is totally controlled by the state, so the U.S. dollars spent on Cuban tourism directly feed the machinery of oppression that brutally represses the Cuban people," Diaz-Balart had claimed in a letter.
The truth is that the laws and regulations of the U.S. embargo prohibits Cuba tourist travel, but allow certain categories such as humanitarian, religious and educational travel (also known as travel from town to town, and the most controversial of these categories) . During his term, President George W. Bush eliminated this category to complaints that he was being abused for tourist excursions. However, President Barack Obama reinstated as a way to increase contacts between the two nations.
The Reuters news agency reported that the trip, which was attended by 12 people, was organized by the Academic Arrangements Abroad, an agency nonprofit based in New York who has orchestrated numerous tours to Cuba for U.S. organizations, including the Museum of Metropolitan Art.
OFAC requires participants on these trips with "a full-time schedule of educational exchange activities that will result in meaningful interaction between the travelers and individuals in U.S. Cuba," says the letter signed by Fitzpayne, reports El Nuevo Herald. But travelers also "can not participate in educational activities in their spare time."
However, the explanation by the OFAC does not convince some activists and political representatives, such as Cuban dela lawmaker Ros-Lehtinen, who insists in a statement that the journey of the artist couple had tourism.
"If tourism activities undertaken by Beyonce and Jay-Z in Cuba is classified as an educational exchange trip, then it is clear that the Obama administration is not serious about denying the Castro regime's economic lifeline that extends tourism States, "Ros-Lehtinen said, according to ABC. He added that the trip "was not even disguised as a cultural program.