Pompeo announced a ban on US companies doing business with Cuba’s BFI bank

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday (January 1, 2021) announced the designation of Cuban commercial bank Banco Financiero Internacional (BFI) ona restricted list, saying the move would prevent the Cuban military from benefiting from financial transactions.

In a statement on the State Department’s website on Friday, Pompeo said the BFI was a commercial bank controlled by the Cuban military that directly benefited from financial transactions at the expense of the Cuban people.

“The Cuban military uses the BFI’s key role in foreign exchange to provide preferential access to the military and state companies, ensure a favourable exchange rate, and finance government-controlled projects to bolster the regime. The profits from these operations disproportionately benefit the Cuban military rather than independent Cuban entrepreneurs, further contributing to repression of the Cuban people and financing Cuban intervention in Venezuela.” “Pompeo said.

Pompeo also said President Trump has made it clear that he supports the Cuban people in their long struggle for freedom and against the communist regime in Havana. The inclusion of the BFI on Cuba’s restricted list helps advance the Trump administration’s goal of preventing the Cuban military from controlling and benefiting from financial transactions that are supposed to benefit the Cuban people.

By listing the BFI, the Trump administration is barring U.S. companies from conducting direct financial transactions with the bank, Reuters said.

Since taking office in January 2017, Trump has reversed the policy of easing ties with Cuba pursued by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. In June 2017, he announced a new Cuba policy that restricts American travel to Cuba and restricts U.S. business dealings with Cuban military and intelligence entities. Trump said such contacts only enrich the Cuban dictatorship and that the United States will not negotiate with Cuba until it is free.

The U.S. State Department announced sanctions in January 2020 against the Cuban Defense Minister for alleged human rights violations, barring him and his immediate family from entering the United States.

Mr. Pompeo said in a statement on the government’s website at the time that MINFAR Minister Leopoldo Cintra Frias had committed ‘gross violations of human rights’ and supported the dictatorship of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.