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Beyoncé, Jay Z Cuba Trip Cleared By Treasury Department

Beyoncé, Jay Z Cuba Trip Cleared By Treasury Department
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Celebrity power duo Beyoncé and Jay Z were heavily criticized in April 2013 by pro-Cuban democracy activists and GOP lawmakers over their trip to Cuba that month.

Most Americans who wish to visit Cuba need to obtain a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), due to a long-standing trade embargo, and critics questioned the optics and legality of the couple's trip.

Reuters reported at the time, however, that the trip was an official "people-to-people" cultural exchange organized by a New York-based nonprofit group, which obtained approval from the U.S. government through the standard licensing process.

And on Wednesday, the Treasury Department's Office of the Inspector General sent a report to OFAC's director that cleared the couple of any wrongdoing.

The report's conclusion reads as follows:

OFAC is authorized to license travel to Cuba for people-to-people educational exchanges that enhance contact with the Cuban people, support civil society in Cuba, or help promote the Cuban people’s independence from Cuban authorities. Based on our review of the applicable laws and regulations, OFAC guidelines, the OFAC case file for the non-profit organization including related correspondence between OFAC and the organization, and inquiry of OFAC officials, we believe OFAC’s determination that there was no apparent violation of U.S. sanctions with respect to Jay-Z and Beyoncé's trip to Cuba was reasonable. While we are not making a formal recommendation in this memorandum, we believe that OFAC should document in its files with a summary of the basis for its determinations with respect to this matter.

Florida GOP Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart were incensed when news of the trip first broke, and even sent a letter to OFAC about the matter.

"Despite the clear prohibition against tourism in Cuba, numerous press reports described the couple's trip as tourism, and the Castro regime touted it as such in its propaganda," Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart wrote in the letter.

"We represent a community of many who have been deeply and personally harmed by the Castro regime's atrocities, including former political prisoners and the families of murdered innocents," they added.

When President Barack Obama was asked about the incident last year, he responded by saying that "you know, this is not something the White House was involved with. We've got better things to do."

Obama did loosen restrictions in 2011 for Americans looking to visit Cuba for cultural, educational and religious reasons. There is still debate, however, over whether and how much the Cuba embargo should be eased.

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Before You Go

7 Reasons The Cuba Embargo Needs To Go
The rest of the world hates it(01 of07)
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The United Nations has voted for 22 years in a row to condemn the Cuban embargo in lopsided votes. Last year only Israel and the United States itself voted against the resolution. (credit:(AP Photo/The United Nations, Rick Bajornas) )
It's ineffective(02 of07)
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The idea behind the embargo is to topple the Communist government. More than five decades later, the policy has led to the overthrow of zero out of two Cuban heads of state. (credit:AP)
It's expensive(03 of07)
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The embargo on Cuba doesn't just hurt the Cuban economy -- it costs U.S. businesses as well. The United States loses out on $1.2 billion in forfeited earnings from lost trade with Cuba annually, according to the Harvard Political Review. (credit:The inauguration ceremony of the first phase of a port overhaul project in Mariel, Cuba, Jan. 27, 2014. (AP))
It's undemocratic(04 of07)
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A poll by the Atlantic Council, a non-partisan think tank, found that a solid majority of Americans favors normalizing relations with Cuba. You'd never guess by looking at the behavior of the U.S. government. (credit:Getty Images)
Cuba isn't a threat(05 of07)
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The idea behind the embargo emanates in part from the Cold War-era notion that a Soviet-aligned government 90 miles off the coast posed a grave security threat. That may have been true during the days of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, but it's tough to make a reasonable case that Cuba poses a threat to the world's most massive military machine today. (credit:Getty Images)
It targets the wrong people(06 of07)
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The embargo aims to cower the Cuban government into submission by engendering resentment among a cash-starved populace. If one takes the U.S. government at its word that it aims to free a country from an oppressive government, why punish the people you're supposedly trying to help? (credit:AP)
Its time has passed(07 of07)
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While it's up for debate whether the embargo was ever a smart policy, today it's clearly anachronistic. The United States now does business with China, Vietnam and Russia, but not Cuba. The policy, first partially implemented in 1960, has survived 11 U.S. presidents with nothing to show. Give it a rest. (credit:WikiMedia:)
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