Cocaine Networks and Communists — Marco's Been Busy Today

I was just getting ready to take the rest of the day off when the State Department flooded my inbox with emails. It seems that Marco Rubio has been pretty busy this week, and he's largely focused on eradicating communism, crime, and drug trafficking from the Western Hemisphere, which is exactly where I like him. 

Let's start with our old pal, Cuba, which Rubio has been sanctioning to death this summer. Or close to death. Unfortunately, the regime is still breathing, but it's doing so with a massive statue of the secretary on its chest. 

Today, the Department of State is designating nine entities and three individuals to further the Trump Administration’s comprehensive push to end the Cuban regime’s malign activities, both in Cuba and across our hemisphere.  This action targets the leadership of the U.S.-designated Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and designates nine Cuban entities supporting the regime.

These designations build on the Department’s July 20 report Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism, which summarizes the Cuban regime’s decades-long use of brigades, such as the one coordinated by the designated ICAP earlier this month, to advance Cuban interests at the expense of the United States.

ICAP is the organization Fidel Castro began in 1960 to build global "friendship" and "solidarity" and maintain relationships with foreign activist groups. In reality, it's a way to spread communist propaganda. According to the State Department, "it claims to have more than 2,000 solidarity organizations across over 150 countries [and] serves as the main organizing hub of Cuba’s ideological network."  Think Code Pink and the like. 

Additionally, "it coordinates research, educational, and cultural exchanges between American and Cuban institutions, builds relationships between American political movements and Cuban officials, and harnesses its global reach to draw leftwing activists, intellectuals, students, influencers and politicians to Cuba from across the world."  

It's also directly tied to Cuban intelligence, and 90% of its staff are affiliated with the Cuban spy agency. 

Anyway, on Thursday, Rubio sanctioned some of ICAP's leadership, including: 

Fernando Gonzalez Llort, the president of ICAP and is one of the “Cuban Five” group of Cuban intelligence officers arrested in 1998. Llort was released from U.S. custody to Cuba in 2014.

Noemi Ramona Rabaza Fernandez, who serves as the first vice president of ICAP.

Leima Martinez Freire, who serves as the ICAP North America Director.

But he didn't stop there. Rubio also sanctioned entities he accuses of exploiting Cuba’s metals and mining sector for the benefit of the regime. These include:

• Empresa de Níquel Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara, a state-owned enterprise dedicated to the extraction and processing of nickel and cobalt.
• Empresa Importadora Exportadora y Comercializadora de Metales or METALCUBA, a "Cuban state-owned enterprise that facilitates the import of heavy industrial products, including specialized fuel and metal components, on behalf of state and non-state actors." 
• Grupo Empresarial Geominero Salinero (Geominsal), a group that "develops and markets mineral resources and salt, and provides technical services associated with these industries." 
• Acinox Comercial, a state-owned enterprise that facilitates the import and export of metallurgical goods and industrial equipment. 

In addition to those, he sanctioned several regime-controlled entities, including the Ministry of Construction of Cuba and Agencia de Contratacion a Representaciones Comerciales S.A. (Acorec S.A.), an organization that supplies Cubans to foreigners for labor inside Cuba and then garnishes 90% of the workers' wages. 

That's not all. He also designated: 

• Coratur S.A., the organization that "manages international trade, import-export operations, and foreign market partnerships." 
• Empresa Central de Abastecimiento y Ventas de Equipos de Transporte Pesado y Sus Piezas (Transimport), a group that has "imported over $5 million worth of vehicles, automotive parts, and industrial equipment in recent years." 
• Empresa Comercializadora de Articulos en General (Consumimport), a group that "imports and exports a wide variety of goods, including appliances and construction materials."   

Meanwhile in Ecuador... 

The State Department also announced on Thursday that it is sanctioning "an Ecuador-based network of 15 individuals and entities and identified 10 Ecuador-based fishing vessels as blocked property for their role in trafficking thousands of kilograms of cocaine each month from South America to Mexico, destined for distribution in our homeland."  

It goes on to state that these groups in Ecuador are growing closer to Mexican cartels, particularly the two biggest and most dangerous, Sinaloa and Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), as well as Ecuadorian Foreign Terrorist Organizations, Los Choneros and Los Lobos.  

"These trafficking operations generate billions of dollars annually for cartels responsible for a significant share of the deadly drugs flowing into our communities," the State Department reports. "The United States will continue to use all our tools to dismantle the cartels profiting at the expense of American lives."  

The network operated under the cover of legitimate fishing fleets out of Manta, using government-subsidized fuel to resupply go-fast boats hauling multi-ton loads across the Pacific.   

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