President Donald Trump’s administration is working on a plan to “financially strangle the Cuban regime” for supporting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, The Washington Examiner reports.
“We are fully willing to keep it up financially,” said an unnamed senior administration official when asked how the United States plans to pressure Cuba. "They're going to have to reconsider.”
The administration is looking into adding to the list of companies that can be sued for controlling property nationalized by the government under Title III of the LIBERTAD Act.
“We have made very clear to them that the intent of our enacting Title III, and of looking to do so in the future, is to essentially create a completely inhospitable foreign investment environment for Cuba, to pressure it economically for its actions in Venezuela,” the official added.
“We know for a fact that there is nothing the Cuban regime fears more than Title III,” the official continued. “They recognize it would be disastrous for them and they've gone on a diplomatic offensive to try to prevent it.”
“The companies exposed are the seaports and a lot of the hotel operations are from expropriated properties,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told the Examiner. “And that’s the lifeblood. That and remittances is how they generate all their hard currency in Cuba.”