Beyonce and Jay-Z's Trip to Cuba Was Legal, Treasury Department Says
The mystery of whether Beyonce and Jay-Z's wedding anniversary
trip to Cuba was legal has been solved. The Treasury Department says
the power couple's trip to Cuba was authorized under a licensed program
that encourages "meaningful contacts" with the Cuban people.
The acknowledgment was made in Treasury Department letters sent Tuesday
to Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican Florida
lawmakers who had asked the department if the trip had violated the
embargo against Cuba and was licensed. A copy of the letter to
Diaz-Balart was obtained by ABC News, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen's office
released a copy of the letter sent to her.
U.S. law prevents Americans from traveling to Cuba unless they do so
under a general, religious or "people-to-people" license. Trips for
tourism are not allowed.
Beyonce and Jay-Z spent their fifth wedding anniversary
visiting Cuba. They were photographed in the streets of Old Havana and
having a meal at a well known restaurant raising questions if their trip
was nothing more than a tourist visit and whether they had entered
legally.
"It is our understanding that the travelers in question traveled to Cuba
pursuant to an educational exchange trip organized by a group
authorized by OFAC to sponsor and organize programs to promote
people-to-people contact in Cuba" says the letter from Alastair M.
Fitzpayne, the Treasury Department's Assistant Secretary for Legislative
Affairs.
OFAC is the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control that enforces
sanctions against Cuba and also supervises the program that grants
"people-to-people" licenses to groups that bring Americans to Cuba for
"meaningful interaction with the Cuban people."
The "people-to-people" license program was halted under President George
W. Bush but restarted by the Obama administration in 2011. Since then,
more than 220 licenses have been granted to organizations that are then
authorized to bring American citizens to Cuba. Cuban-Americans are
allowed re-entry into Cuba as part of a family reunification program.
Licensed groups must provide itineraries of trip schedules to OFAC
showing "a full-time schedule of education exchange activities" for such
meaningful interactions. But that doesn't mean American visitors can't
have some fun in Cuba, according to the letter "travelers pursuing a
full-time schedule of educational exchange activities may engage in
non-educational activities off-hours."
In a statement released Tuesday evening, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen did not seem satisfied with the Treasury Department's answer.
"That was a wedding anniversary vacation that was not even disguised as a cultural program," she said.
Ros-Lehtinen said that if the pair's "tourist activities" are classified
as an educational exchange trip, "then it is clear that the Obama
Administration is not serious about denying the Castro regime an
economic lifeline that US tourism will extend to it." She added, "As
more human rights activists engage in hunger strikes, I don't think they
will see any evidence of how this scam endeavor will help them become
independent of the regime."
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