The petition consists of a letter signed by the congressman and sent on Friday to the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besent.
Miami, United States. -Cuban American congressman Mario Díaz-Balart formally requested the US Department of the Treasury to determine whether trips and transactions linked to recent musical presentations in Cuba “fully complied” with US law and impose “all appropriate sanctions” in case of finding violations.
The petition consists of a letter signed by Díaz-Balart and sent this Friday to the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besent, in which the legislator also demanded that those who “violate the sanctions of the US and finance the Cuban regime” pay accounts.
In the letter, the Republican representative applauds the Executive’s measures against Havana: “Firmly praise President Trump for imposing hard sanctions on the repressive and anti -state dictatorship in Cuba, including the reincorporation of Cuba to the list of state sponsors of terrorism and the expansion of the restricted list of Cuba of Cuba of Military Entities. efforts to fully enforce those sanctions. ”
The legislator states that, “through numerous sources, including public access information”, he had news that “several Cuban -American musicians have traveled to Cuba to offer concerts,” presumably protected in the exception for “public performances” provided for in the current regulations.
However, he warns that in certain cases “the trip related to musical presentations requires a specific license for all incidental financial transactions to that presentation” and that this permission “is usually narrow and applies only to those who participate in the performance.”
It also adds that “the general license does not authorize transactions for activities of a mainly commercial nature or that they involve prohibited Cuban entities included in the restricted list of Cuba of the US Department of State Department.”
As an example, Díaz-Balart describes as “particularly alarming” a show in Havana during the summer “which involved Dany Ome and Kevincito on 13, both allegedly resident in the United States.” As reported, “the concert took place in the Pabexpo exhibition complex.” In a moment, “the musicians were also photographed together with uniformed members of state security.” “The grandson of the Cuban dictator Raúl Castro, Raúl Rodríguez Castro, was photographed among the public,” the letter details.
From these elements, he writes, “the involvement that the artists who acted in the enclosure could be easily extracted, together with their representative Magdiel Díaz, who also allegedly resides in the United States, are in close collaboration with the regime in Cuba, in a mutually beneficial commercial relationship that channels currencies to a sponsoring state of terrorism.” He adds that social media publications show “multiple presentations” of artists on the island, including one in the blind of Ávila.
The congressman argues that “these public presentations undermine the purpose of the sanctions of the United States through a source of lucrative and recurrent income for the Cuban dictatorship.” Therefore, it formulates your main application: “I respectfully request that your department evaluate whether the financial transactions related to the trip for musical presentations, such as the aforementioned, fully complied with the US law, and that it imposes all the appropriate sanctions for any violation that you can find.”
By spreading the letter, Díaz-Balart accompanied its publication with A message in Spanish in which he rejected any legitimation of the Cuban regime through artistic actions. “Present to a dictatorship that threatens the national security of the US, imprison and murder dissidents, and protect terrorists,” as The late policeman Joanne Chesimard– It is not ‘art’, it is complicity, “he wrote.” I demand that you pay accounts fully to those who violate US sanctions and finance the Cuban regime. ”
