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Cuba Dispatch
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Florida Republicans push for Cuba licence purge

3 min read
10:34UTC

Three Miami-area Republicans wrote to OFAC on 11 February demanding review of every active licence authorising US business with Cuban state entities.

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PoliticsDeveloping
Key takeaway

Three Miami members are pulling the Trump administration's Cuba policy back toward its most restrictive reading.

On 11 February 2026 Florida Representatives Carlos Giménez (FL-26), Mario Díaz-Balart (FL-25) and María Elvira Salazar (FL-27) sent a joint letter to OFAC and the Bureau of Industry and Security demanding a comprehensive review and revocation of every active licence authorising US business with Cuban state-controlled entities 1. The letter invokes the 1996 LIBERTAD Act and Cuba's State Sponsor of Terrorism designation.

The three signatories are not random. FL-25, FL-26 and FL-27 cover the majority of the Cuban-American diaspora in south Florida, and their offices function as the permanent congressional constituency for hardline Cuba policy. The demand is tactical: general licences and specific licences issued under the Cuban Assets Control Regulations are the legal instruments that carve exceptions into an otherwise comprehensive embargo, and revoking them removes the daylight through which ordinary US-Cuba commerce passes.

The effect is already partly visible in Treasury practice. The 25 March Venezuela licence permitting private-sector Cuban buyers only, while keeping GAESA and the Cuban state blocked, maps closely to the letter's logic of private-over-state differentiation. Lowdown has not found a public Treasury written response to the 11 February letter through 15 April, but absence is not the same as inaction: licence revocations under OFAC practice do not require correspondence announcements. Whether a broader revocation programme materialises, particularly against the telecommunications and travel authorisations that remain in place, is the open policy question. Silence past a further 30 days would itself be a signal about the weight Treasury is giving to the delegation's pressure.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Three Republican members of Congress from South Florida; all representing districts with large Cuban-American populations; wrote a letter demanding the US government cancel every business licence that allows American companies to deal with Cuba's government-controlled companies. These three have enormous influence over US Cuba policy because they represent the community most directly affected, and their support matters to the Republican Party in a key electoral state. The letter is asking for maximum sanctions; essentially closing every remaining commercial loophole. Whether Treasury complies is a test of how much the administration wants to give the Miami delegation.

What could happen next?
  • Risk

    If OFAC reads the letter's 'regime-controlled entities' language broadly, telecommunications licences enabling internet access and journalism inside Cuba could be revoked; cutting the independent information channel that produces Yoani Sánchez and 14ymedio reporting.

  • Consequence

    The absence of a public Treasury response through 15 April does not confirm inaction; OFAC licence revocations are typically implemented without announcement, meaning compliance could already be occurring.

Sources:Office of Rep. Carlos Giménez
Mentions:Carlos Giménez →Mario Díaz-Balart →María Elvira Salazar →OFAC →Bureau of Industry and Security →Helms-Burton Act →Cuba →Cuban Assets Control Regulations →Venezuela →Miami →Republican Party →Florida →GAESA →Lowdown Today →
First Reported In

Update #1 · Cuba carve-out survives Venezuela oil easing

Office of Rep. Carlos Giménez· 15 Apr 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
Caused by
Treasury extends Russian oil cover to Cuba
GL 134B directly contradicts the Florida delegation's February demand for comprehensive licence revocations, which Treasury left unanswered for 75 days
Occurred 18 Apr 2026
Read story →
This Event
Florida Republicans push for Cuba licence purge
The letter is the political upstream of the 25 March private-sector-only licence and the continuing pressure on Treasury's Cuba file.
Led to
Florida Republicans take credit for EO 14404
The 11 February Florida delegation letter's pressure produced the 7 May Giménez press release endorsing EO 14404.
Occurred 7 May 2026
Read story →
Different Perspectives
OCDH (Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos), Madrid
OCDH (Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos), Madrid
OCDH itemised its previously reported first-half tally of 1,949 repressive actions into named categories, including 91 cases against independent journalists and 50 retaliations against prisoners' relatives. The monitor documents state conduct without endorsing sanctions as the remedy, a distinct position from Washington's designation campaign.
US State Department and OFAC
US State Department and OFAC
Four Federal Register notices on 31 July confirmed GAESA's own SDN designation dates to 7 May, closing a gap left by coverage that described only GAESA-controlled assets as sanctioned; Rubio separately called US sympathy for Cuba anti-Americanism. Whether the lagged gazetting reflects deliberate sequencing or administrative backlog is not established.
Unión Eléctrica (UNE), Cuba's state grid operator
Unión Eléctrica (UNE), Cuba's state grid operator
UNE's load-dispatch director blamed the 2 August total collapse on a 110kV Havana substation fault and a Felton trip, not the storm damage CNN and AP cited, and a day later Decreto 160 took force, de-listing 46 private-sector activities. Havana's own record was more specific, and more severe, than the wire account.
Spain (Foreign Ministry and hotel investors)
Spain (Foreign Ministry and hotel investors)
Madrid has worked to shield Spanish hotel operators exposed to Cuba, and OFAC's General Licences 2 and 3 winding down the Guernsey-listed CEIBA Investments fund give those investors a defined exit rather than an abrupt block. Spain's stake in managing an orderly wind-down, not confronting the designation itself, keeps it distinct from Havana's collective-punishment framing.
Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX)
Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX)
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla called the 23 July designations "castigo colectivo" and defended the medical missions as protecting healthcare access for patients in the countries where Cuban doctors serve, without addressing the evasion allegation against Coral Maritima directly.
US Treasury (OFAC) and State Department
US Treasury (OFAC) and State Department
OFAC designated Cuba's medical-missions operators and named the Mariel-Coral Maritima transfer as GAESA sanctions evasion on 23 July, characterisations Washington has not independently substantiated in public documents reviewed. The administration frames the wave as closing hard-currency channels sector by sector, following the same pattern applied to tourism and financial clearing in June and July.