Congressmen ask for an explanation of the "legal loophole" to finance MSMEs allied to the Cuban regime

Republican congressmen Maria Elvira Salazar and Bill Huizenga They have sent a letter to the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and to the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, considering that the Biden Administration is taking steps to resume relations with the Cuban dictatorship. The letter, which has also been signed by his party colleagues, Blaine Luetkemeyer and Carlos A. Giménez, disgraces the United States Government for taking advantage of a "legal loophole" to finance MSMEs that are difficult to avoid being linked to the totalitarian regime.

The four Republicans reproach the Biden Administration for despite the long history of attacks from Cuba on national security and Díaz-Canel's alliance with "adversary" countries such as Iran, China and Russia, it has taken numerous steps to resume contacts with the regime.

The four congressmen have expressed their concern about a report from September 2023, which talks about establishing new measures so that US financing reaches Cuban entrepreneurs, without taking into account the tight control that the regime maintains over civil society, which is why It is very difficult to open a private company in Cuba without interference from the State.

At this point they have remembered that during the known as a banking process, the regime prohibited Cuban companies from cash transactions and withdrawing money from ATMs. And although they admit that this is the tool that the Government of the Island uses to control inflation, it also, incidentally, allows them to control all the transactions that are made. Therefore, it is worth asking, according to the congressmen, if this route proposed by the Biden Administration will give Díaz-Canel access to the United States financing system.

For this reason, they wonder what the Treasury Department is doing to ensure compliance with the regulations imposed on the Cuban dictatorship by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), taking into account that there are sanctions in force that do not allow payments to Cuba. through US banks.

On the other hand, the congressmen remember that the Russian National Card Payment System (NSPK) has put MIR cards into circulation in Cuba and taking into account that the director and president of NSPK, Vladimir Komlev, is sanctioned by OFAC for his support of the war in Ukraine, they wonder how we can be sure that the US dollars are not going to end up in a Russian bank. .

In summary, the four signatories consider that Biden's intentions to facilitate financing for small Cuban companies are "based on a fallacy" and do not obey reality and insist that any effort to reduce or circumvent the current embargo against Cuba contravenes the law. American and favors foreign adversaries, Russia and China, "who are closely aligned with Cuba."