Huddleston, Rhodes, Others In Letter To President Biden Ignore Reality About Cuba OFAC Licensing.
Perhaps, Everyone Did Not Know? That’s A Stretch. Reinforcing Foolishness
A Letter Ill-Conceived And Ill-Timed
How Are Cuba Polices Served By Klieg Lights?
The Hill (17 December 2024: “In a letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris, the former officials- including former Havana Chief of Mission Vicki Huddleston and former deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes- urge the outgoing administration to remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List, increase humanitarian aid to the country and to streamline rules for Cuban nationals to access the U.S. financial system.”
“The signatories also asked Biden to instruct the Office of Foreign Assets Control [OFAC] to guide financial institutions on how to serve qualified Cuban nationals without stepping astride of U.S. sanctions. They also called for a general license to allow U.S. citizens to invest in Cuban enterprises not linked to the country’s government.”
Ms. Huddleston, Mr. Rhodes, and the other signatories to the letter to Joseph Biden, 46th President of the United States (2021-2015), in asking for the OFAC to issue a general license authorizing investment into privately-owned companies located in the Republic of Cuba, failed to recognize that the OFAC on 10 May 2022 issued the first license authorizing both direct investment into and direct financing to a privately-owned company owned by a Republic of Cuba national located in the Republic of Cuba.
More consequently, Ms. Huddleston, Mr. Rhodes, and the other signatories rather than recognize the existence of a license issued more than two years ago, failed to be curious as to the status of that license- how had it been implemented? Was the investment a success? Was the financing a success- were repayment terms met? They did not ask the OFAC license recipients.
Had Ms. Huddleston, Mr. Rhodes, and the other signatories demonstrated curiosity- as would have been expected from a former diplomat, executive branch official, and academicians, they would have learned the investment had not been delivered and the financing had not been delivered.
Why? Because the Diaz-Canel-Valdes Mesa Administration (2018- ) has not issued regulations to lawfully authorize direct investment in and direct financing to a privately-owned company owned by a Republic of Cuba national located in the Republic of Cuba.
This lack of regulatory authorization does not only impact individuals subject to United States jurisdiction, but individuals, investors, and companies in other countries, including surprisingly those located in the Canada, China, Iran, Mexico, Russian Federation, Spain, Turkiye, and United Kingdom, among others. The government of the Republic of Cuba has not issued regulations that would benefit those countries with whom they have commercial, economic, financial, and political relations- and to whom they owe considerable sums in overdue payments. That the government of the Republic of Cuba will not assist their friends is a remarkable reality.
The signatories of the letter to President Biden reinforced the courage of their ignorance. The Biden-Harris Administration (2021-2025) has implemented a robust portfolio of authorizations enabling engagement with the re-emerging private sector in the Republic of Cuba. That some of those authorizations have yet to be productive is more about the government of the Republic of Cuba not permitting them to work rather than the Biden-Harris Administration not making an effort.
True, there remain some critical authorizations that have yet to be implemented. Direct correspondent banking, which the Obama-Biden Administration (2009-2017) inexplicably was only permitted one-way thus rendering the entirety unworkable- and this was within the purview of Mr. Rhodes. They took credit for something that would not work- and the Biden-Harris Administration has continued that embrace despite the foolishness of authorizing direct investment and direct financing while simultaneously impeding the ability to efficiently, securely, and transparently move funds directly rather than through third countries- or using satchels of United States currency transported by individuals on regularly-scheduled commercial flights.
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The letter asking the Biden-Harris Administration to embrace what would be a political quantum leap requiring that the 5 November 2024 electoral consequences be ignored would only set an additional menu items on the political table for the Trump-Vance Administration (2025-2029) to quite publicly reverse whatever had been enabled, underscores the juvenile foundation of the letter- it may have felt good at the time to conceive, draft, sign, and send, but likely would have an opposite effect- placing the Republic of Cuba as a political issue squarely in the klieg lights on 20 January 2025.
Not unsurprisingly, the government of the Republic of Cuba has embraced the concept of the letter signed by Ms. Huddleston, Mr. Rhodes, and others, but avoided mention of the “general license to allow U.S. citizens to invest in Cuban enterprises not linked to the country’s government.”
“Former US officials urge Biden to change policy on Cuba
Washington, Dec 17 (Prensa Latina) A group of former US diplomatic and national security officials urged President Joe Biden on Tuesday to make changes in the Government's policy on Cuba before his Republican successor, Donald Trump, takes office. In a letter to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, they called on the administration “to loosen some restrictions on Cuba before handing over the reins of US diplomacy to President-elect Trump.”
The letter, signed, among others, by the former head of the Washington mission in Havana, Vicki Huddleston, and former Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, urges the outgoing administration to remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List, increase humanitarian aid to the country and to streamline rules for Cuban nationals to access the U.S. financial system.
We also believe that current US policy “has exacerbated Cubans’ hardship, and thus we respectfully request that you take a series of actions in the remaining weeks of your administration to help alleviate these challenges. Such a request was made “in the US national interest and in support of the Cuban people.”
Trump included Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terrorism List in the last weeks of his first term (2017-2021), which left Biden with the option of whether or not to keep Cuba within that designation. “As many of us have said publicly, there is no credible evidence that Cuba sponsors international terrorism. 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,” the officials wrote.
“Our closest allies in the region have repeatedly requested we remove this designation to ameliorate the regional impacts of surging Cuban migration, and we are confident the United States will be applauded worldwide for making this fact-based determination,” stressed the letter, quoted by the Hill newspaper.
On December 17, 2014, Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro announced that the United States and Cuba would resume diplomatic relations, but a decade later, far from progress, there is regression. Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured that he did not anticipate any change in Washington’s policy on Cuba before President Biden concludes his term.”
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