Salazar urges Biden to cancel contract with 'small business' that fired employee for criticizing Cuban regime

This Friday, the Chair of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), sent a letter to President Biden urging him to cancel the contract of the U.S. Embassy in Havana with MadWoman, a purported private sector company in Cuba.

The letter comes a week after ADN America broke the story that MD Creativa SRL, aka MadWoman, worked with the State Department's Havana Embassy since at least 2023, according to the testimonies of Alvaro Hernández and Betto Gongora, both former employees of the small business.

“The United States cannot, under any circumstances, work with ‘companies’ whose leaders fire their employees for criticizing the Cuban dictatorship,” the congresswoman's letter says.

“This Small and Medium-sized Enterprise, MadWoman, is clearly a front for the regime," wrote the Florida congresswoman. "It is completely unacceptable for our Embassy to work with a ‘company' that fires individuals for criticizing the Cuban dictatorship. The U.S. Embassy in Havana must immediately terminate all contracts with MadWoman.”

On Jan. 18, 2024, Salazar convened a hearing in the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs to disucss whether the Cuban regime was using the Mipymes as a propaganda tool, convincing Western countries that Cuba has a burgeoning private sector in order to access foreign capital.

During the hearing,  Salazar asked two senior officials from the State Department for Western Hemisphere Affairs and Human Rights on the validity of the claim that there is a growing private sector in Cuba that is truly independent of the regime.

State Department official, Eric Jacobstein suggested during the inquiry that the U.S. Embassy in Havana would know when a Mipyme is a front because it does its due process.

“Our embassy in Havana, regularly engages with entrepreneurs and often visits their place of business and they have ongoing conversations with these individuals so any derogatory information received on entrepreneurs is reviewed carefully,” he said. 

In the case of MadWoman, the Mipymes recently moved to Residencias Miramar, a new office space that belongs to Inmobiliaria CIMEX, S.A, an entity sanctioned by the United States government.

According to Gongora's and Alvarez's testimonies, as well as information reviewed by ADN and published by MadWoman on their company brochure, the marketing agency regularly works for companies owned by the Cuban government which may be inconsistent what Mr. Jacobestein reiterated to Rep. Salazar during a recent hearing when discussing MYPIMES:

“These are individuals who make no money from the state economy and have no way to survive,” portraying the entrepreneurs the U.S. government was aiding as extremely vulnerable, which does not seem to be the case with MadWoman, which even uses office space belonging to the military conglomerate.

“Needless to say, the Cuban regime is totalitarian in every sense and prides itself on maintaining strict control over every aspect of the lives of the Cuban people. The protests of July 11, 2021, should remind the Biden Administration that the Cuban people live under constant repression and censorship. The case of MadWoman demonstrates that the myth of ‘new Cuban entrepreneurs’ is exactly that, a myth,” Salazar said in the letter.

Salazar also requested all communications between the Havana Embassy and MadWoman before April 1, 2024.