Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press Beyoncé and Jay-Z in Cuba last week.As it turns out, Beyoncé and Jay-Z were never in much danger of serving the 10-year jail sentence, or paying the $250,000 fine, that their visit to Cuba last week supposedly might have cost them. Treasury Department regulations prohibit Americans from traveling to Cuba “unless authorized by a general or specific license,†and several Florida lawmakers have raised strong objections.
Two of them - Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, both Republicans - wrote to the Treasury Department to ascertain precisely what license the couple were traveling under.
The department said on Tuesday that the visit was not a problem. In a letter to Mr. Diaz-Balart and Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Alastair Fitzpayne, the Treasury Department’s Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, said that the trip was licensed as an educational exchange.
Though parts of the visit, during which the couple celebrated their fifth anniversary, may have looked like tourism - which is apparently allowed during the off-hours on an educational visit - Jay-Z and Beyoncé fulfilled their educational obligations by meeting with the La Colmenita children’s theater group, and students and teachers at the Superior Art Institute.
