Who Benefits from U.S. Licenses to Export Luxury Cars to Cuba?
MIAMI, United States. – Since November 2022, the Cuban regime has received over $75 million in vehicles exported from the United States thanks to license exceptions authorized by the Biden-Harris Administration. These imports have financially benefited the Cuban regime, which charges between $20,000 and $56,000 in tariffs per vehicle, according to an article published by activist and independent researcher Salomé García Bacallao on the platform Medium.
In her article, García Bacallao explains that the licenses issued by the U.S. allow the export to Cuba of “hybrid or combustion-engine vehicles, new and used, of various makes and sizes, manufactured between 2018 and 2023.” Although U.S. regulations specify that these vehicles should be intended for “use by the Cuban private sector,” the country’s economic conditions make it difficult for ordinary citizens to access these imports.
According to Alejandro Cantón, director of Maravana Cargo — one of the U.S. companies authorized to export vehicles — the tariffs imposed by the General Customs of the Republic of Cuba “triple the service fees charged by export agencies.”
The range of vehicles sent to Cuba includes microcars, subcompacts, compacts, mid-size, full-size, and luxury cars, as well as sports cars, convertibles, minivans, and pickup trucks. Brands exported include Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Chevrolet, Toyota, BMW, Land Rover, Tesla, Cadillac, and Nissan.
The researcher highlights one case in particular: “A fully electric Tesla Cybertruck was exported from Miami to Havana — the capital of a country known for fuel shortages, a failed energy infrastructure, and prolonged blackouts that have plagued the population for years.”
García Bacallao also questions the logic behind these authorizations: “Who at the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) decided that electric and luxury vehicles were a necessity for the Cuban people, justifying exceptions to the embargo?”
In her investigation, the young researcher also points out that the procedures established by exporting companies require money deposits in Cuba. Due to the embargo, these payments must necessarily go through third countries—a scheme that could facilitate money laundering operations. “The Cuban regime is well known for using offshore companies to conduct transactions and evade U.S. economic sanctions,” García Bacallao states.
The investigation also highlights direct contacts between U.S. businessmen who benefited from these licenses and high-ranking Cuban officials. The author recalls that on October 26, 2022, “Cuba’s current ruler, Miguel Díaz-Canel, received a group of American entrepreneurs to participate in a ‘business conference between Cuba and the United States,’” a meeting organized by the Cuban Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. consulting group Focus Cuba.
Among the attendees at that meeting were Phillip Peters, an advisor to U.S. senators on Cuban affairs; Paul Johnson, president of the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba; Robert L. Muse, a lawyer specializing in securing license exceptions for Cuba; and Ralph Patiño, a member of the Democratic National Finance Committee and an advisor to Joe Biden on Caribbean affairs. Former congressman Joe García also attended, along with Cuban-American businessman Hugo Cancio, described as “one of the most influential private figures in trade policy toward Cuba during the Obama Administration.”
One month after that meeting, in November 2022, the first license was granted to Premier Automotive Export Ltd., a company based in Maryland and owned by John Felder. Felder was responsible for selling the first Tesla legally exported from the U.S. to Cuba, purchased by a Cuban-American couple who own the restaurant “Cuba de Ayer.” The shipment was carried out by Crowley Liner Services, a company authorized by OFAC since 2001 to transport licensed cargo from the U.S. to Cuba.
In April 2023, a second license was granted to Apacargo Express, a Miami-based company owned by Cuban-American Eduardo Aparicio, authorizing the export of “automobiles, trucks, trailers, tractors, and agricultural equipment.” The third license was granted in May 2023 to Fuego Enterprises Inc., also based in Miami and owned by Hugo Cancio. As of 2024, a total of 22 exceptions have been approved.
Economists cited by García Bacallao warn that, due to high Cuban customs tariffs, it has become more profitable for U.S. companies to export vehicles rather than food and other basic goods—further deepening the humanitarian crisis in Cuba. “The frequent appearances of these vehicles on the streets, in stark contrast to the crumbling cities, are a regular source of outrage for the Cuban population,” the researcher notes.
In January 2025, the Cuban regime introduced new regulations on vehicle imports aimed at favoring state-run companies under the military conglomerate GAESA and making it more difficult for private U.S. companies to complete import procedures. Nonetheless, García Bacallao notes that imports continued in January 2025, totaling nearly $2 million.
Finally, García Bacallao highlights the lack of attention from U.S. authorities to these concessions and states that “there is no reason for the Trump Administration to allow these ridiculous concessions to remain. These license exceptions have greatly benefited the Cuban regime by generating millions of dollars in tariffs.”
Meanwhile, the researcher warns that these developments continue to go unnoticed outside of Miami’s media ecosystem, even though “Cuban journalists have recently warned that these cars may even be imported by U.S. fugitives living in Cuba—individuals who sometimes have ties to elite figures such as Sandro Castro, Fidel’s grandson.”
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