What are Florida lawmakers demanding regarding Cuba?

Representatives María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez, and Mario Díaz-Balart are demanding that OFAC and BIS revoke all licenses allowing US companies to do business with Cuba, arguing they violate the Helms-Burton Act.

What is OFAC and what role does it play in Cuba sanctions?

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is the US Treasury Department agency that administers economic sanctions. It authorizes or denies licenses for transactions with sanctioned countries like Cuba.

How would revoking these licenses affect Cuba?

Eliminating permits would sever the last legal commercial links between US companies and Cuba, deepening the island's economic isolation during its worst energy and economic crisis in decades.

Florida Lawmakers Demand Revocation of US Business Licenses with Cuba

Three Cuban-American lawmakers from Florida escalated pressure on Cuba this Wednesday by demanding the revocation of all licenses allowing American companies to conduct business with the island.

The Letter to OFAC

Republican Representatives María Elvira Salazar, Carlos Giménez, and Mario Díaz-Balart sent a letter to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the Treasury Department and the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the Commerce Department, denouncing that both agencies “continue to authorize transactions that benefit the Cuban regime.”

“President Donald J. Trump and Secretary Marco Rubio have been clear in their decisive action against the dictatorship in Cuba. We expect your agencies to strongly enforce US sanctions against Cuba’s dictatorship.”

The lawmakers argue that active licenses “undermine” White House sanctions and “violate” the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, the most restrictive legislation within the US embargo against Cuba.

Specific Demands

In their letter, the lawmakers demanded three concrete actions:

Comprehensive review of all active licenses involving the Cuban government
Immediate revocation of permits for companies that “directly or indirectly benefit regime-controlled entities”
Increased scrutiny of future license applications

“No exceptions. No loopholes. Enforce the law and cut every dollar that keeps the dictatorship in power,” Salazar emphasized.

Pressure Upon Pressure

This initiative adds to a series of recent actions by these lawmakers:

Giménez demanded last week that Delta and American Airlines suspend all flights to Cuba
In January, Giménez asked Trump to ban all travel and remittances to the island
All three celebrated the “national emergency” Trump declared regarding Cuba

The legislative pressure coincides with Cuba’s most critical moment in decades: the island faces blackouts affecting 64% of the country, suspension of international flights, and an economic crisis without recent precedent.

Context: The Noose Tightens

Since the US intervention in Venezuela that led to the capture of Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, Cuba has lost virtually all its oil supply sources. Mexico suspended shipments, Canadian and Russian airlines canceled flights, and China, while sending rice, avoided committing to oil.

Revoking commercial licenses would close one of the few remaining legal channels connecting American businesses to the island, deepening the most severe economic isolation Cuba has faced since the Special Period of the 1990s.

Source: OnCubaNews/EFE