Two Republican congressmen from Florida sent a letter to the Department of Treasury Friday questioning the legality of musical power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s much-publicized trip to Cuba.
Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart sent a letter to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to “express concern” and request information about Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s vacation in Cuba. The couple has been celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary in Havana, but the trade embargo between the U.S. and Cuba prohibits tourism to the country without a license from the government.
From the letter:
These restrictions are in place because the Cuban dictatorship is one of four U.S.-designated state sponsors of terrorism with one of the world’s most egregious human rights records. Cuba’s tourism industry is wholly state-controlled; therefore, U.S. dollars spent on Cuban tourism directly fund the machinery of oppression that brutally represses the Cuban people.
Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart each represent districts in southern Florida where many Cuban-Americans live.
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