Florida Republican Reps. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart are asking questions about the nature of Jay-Z and Beyoncé's trip last week to Cuba.
In a letter to the Treasury Department office that controls travel licenses, Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart "express concern" about what appeared to be a tourist trip taken by the famous and politically connected couple, despite prohibitions against American tourism:
We write to express concern and to request information regarding the highly publicized trip by U.S. musicians Beyoncé Knowles-Carter (Beyoncé) and Shawn Carter (Jay-Z) to Cuba. We would like to respectfully request, within all applicable rules and guidelines, information regarding the type of license that Beyoncé and Jay-Z received, for what purpose, and who approved such travel. [...]
Despite the clear prohibition against tourism in Cuba, numerous press reports described the couple’s trip as tourism, and the Castro regime touted it as such in its propaganda. We represent a community of many who have been deeply and personally harmed by the Castro regime’s atrocities, including former political prisoners and the families of murdered innocents. The restrictions on tourism travel are common-sense measures meant to prevent U.S. dollars from supporting a murderous regime that opposes U.S. security interests at every turn and which ruthlessly suppresses the most basic liberties of speech, assembly, and belief. We support the Cuban people by refusing to sustain their jailers.