Beyoncé, Jay-Z Cuba Visit Was Legal; Embargo Debate Reignited

It turns out Beyoncé and Jay-Z's visit to Havana for their anniversary was legal.

A source familiar with their itinerary told Reuters on Monday that the couple's trip was fully licensed with the U.S. Treasury Department. The source said the trip was licensed as a "people-to-people" cultural visit and did not involve what Reuters called "typical tourist activity such as trips to the beach." It included visits with Cuban artists and musicians and to nightclubs to hear live music; visits to some of the city's best "paladares," or privately run restaurants; and the couple's well-photographed stroll around Old Havana was led by architect Miguel Coyula.

But this doesn't mean the trip is a moot point, politically. Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, Cuban-American Republicans from south Florida, sent a letter to OFAC last week requesting information on what kind of license Beyoncé and Jay-Z had secured for their trip to Cuba, if any. On Monday, after information about the couple's travel license was released, Republican Senator Marco Rubio issued a statement saying that "since their inception, the Obama Administration's 'people to people' cultural exchange programs have been abused by tourists." He also asked the administration to "explain exactly how trips like these comply with U.S. law and regulations governing travel to Cuba" and to "disclose how many more of these trips they have licensed."

Senator Rubio, who is Cuban-American, has maintained a traditional hard line against the island's Castro-led government. In a 2010 interview, Rubio told the magazine Human Events that the Obama administration's reversion to the Clinton-era policy of permitting Cuban-Americans to travel freely between the two countries and send unlimited remittances allowed the Cuban government to use "travel and exile travel as a way to fund its repressive regime," adding that he believed frequent travel between the two places compromised Cubans' exile status in the US.

On the other side of the coin, Democratic representative from Tampa Kathy Castor said on Monday that with regard to Cuba policy, "it's time to try something new" and said the 53-year-old US embargo against Cuba should be lifted, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

"Cuba is changing," said Castor, who visited the island this past week on a fact-finding trip. "They are still a hard-core communist nation, but they are embarking on market reforms in their economy that deserve encouragement."

She opined that Fidel Castro's brother and current leader Raul was a "much more practical ruler" and pointed out potential benefits for US manufacturers if the embargo were lifted. She also said it could make Tampa a tourist gateway to the island and lead to more US influence over a Cuban offshore oil drilling industry whose antiquated technology could pose a threat to beaches in Florida.

A number of US firms currently sponsor trips to Cuba, including National Geographic, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the American Automobile Association. An estimated 400,000 Americans visited Cuba in 2011, with and without a license.