The Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect (ACERE) expresses concern over the January 31 announcement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the United States will be returning to a “tough Cuba policy,” warning that the measures announced will only serve to increase migratory pressure on the island, cede ground to U.S. adversaries in the region and harm Cuban families on both sides of the Florida Straits.
The “tough Cuba policy” that Rubio laid out includes President Trump’s decision to revoke the rescission of Cuba as a state sponsor a terrorism; the reinstatement of the State Department’s Cuba Restricted List, including the inclusion of remittance-processor Orbit SA onto the list; the removal of President Biden’s six-month waiver on the enforcement of Title III of the Helms-Burton (LIBERTAD) Act; and a directive for the U.S. Embassy in Havana to meet with the families of unjustly detained prisoners and dissidents on the island, for whom the U.S. provides its “wholehearted support.”
The announcement completes the full reversal of President Biden’s last-minute deal with Cuba, announced on January 14 and mediated by the Vatican, which was intended to lead to the release of 553 prisoners in Cuba, at least 190 of whom were freed up until January 20, according to rights groups.
The apparent freeze on releases coincides with the decision to maintain Cuba on the state sponsor of terrorism list, which is justified, according to Rubio, because the island provides “food, housing, and medical care to foreign murderers, bombmakers, and hijackers.” Not only does this claim not hold up to the relevant legal criteria for the state-sponsor designation, but it also elides basic facts. As former Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified twice last summer, no aging U.S. fugitive allegedly living in Cuba has been charged or convicted with committing acts of international terrorism, as explicitly required by the law, and Colombian authorities recently clarified that no members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) are presently in Cuba. The designation has hindered Cuba’s access to international finance, reduced tourism revenues to pay for imports of food, fuel and medicine, and obstructed the arrival of humanitarian relief, fueling U.S.-bound migration.
Likewise, the decision to enforce Title-III of the Helms-Burton Act (allowing certified claimants to sue any entity making beneficial use of property nationalized after the Cuban revolution) responds to a years-long lobbying campaign from which then-Senator Rubio personally benefitted and has resulted in no victorious outcomes for any plaintiff, save one out-of-court settlement. In the six years since President Trump became the first president – Democrat or Republican – in 23 years to activate it, Title III has been directed overwhelmingly at U.S. and European companies, not the Cuban government, and federal court interpretations have practically become a near-total ban to future suits. Title III’s fruitless activation, responding more to special interests than U.S. strategic objectives, has irked allies, stifled foreign investment on the island, done nothing to resolve certified claims and relinquished market share in Cuba to Asian competitors.
Lastly, the inclusion of Orbit SA onto the Cuba Restricted List, based on unverified information contained in anonymous leaks obtained by the Miami Herald, has led Western Union to halt its Cuba operations and pushed all U.S.-origin remittance activity to the island underground, to the benefit of agencies in Rubio’s home state which can now charge Cuban families upward of 30% fees to support their loved ones on the island. Claims that Orbit SA takes a significant cut of money sent by families in Miami to the benefit of the Cuban military are unfounded, as were apocryphal allegations about Fincimex, the Cuban firm with which Western Union worked before it was blacklisted under the first Trump administration. By forcing Western Union to shut down its operations, the Trump administration is jeopardizing a life-saving source of income for Cuban families and private sector workers who must now participate in informal channels and illicit activities that in and of themselves may face further scrutiny under the FY25 Financial Services and General Government funding bill.
The “tough Cuba policy” announced by Secretary Rubio last month will do nothing more than further isolate the U.S. from regional allies opposed to Cuba’s state-sponsor designation; contribute to the unprecedented surge in Cuban migration to U.S. borders.; cede markets and influence on the island to Russia and China; and push assistance by Cuban-American families underground and into potentially illegal territory.
ACERE urges the Trump administration to objectively consider whether Rubio’s “tough Cuba policy” truly advances U.S. interests in the region – curbing migration, out-competing strategies rivals and fighting drug trafficking – or whether this outdated and provenly ineffective approach will more likely contribute to further evasion of U.S. sanctions and export controls, increased pressure on and frustration from U.S. allies, and the ongoing immiseration of Cubans on the island.
