MEP accuses billionaire Richard Branson of business dealings with the Cuban dictatorship

Hermann Tertsch, a member of the European Parliament, accused British tycoon Richard Branson on Friday of wanting to "make more business and more money with the enslavement" of Cubans under the "communist dictatorship" of the Cuba.

"This billionaire wants to make more business and more money with the slavery, terror, and political prisoners of Cuba's murderous communist dictatorship," Tertsch posted on his Twitter account.

According to the MEP of the Spanish party VOX, "the lack of shame of the great oligarchs in their contempt for freedom, democracy and human beings grows daily."

Hermann Tertsch, a journalist by profession, reacted to a tweet published by the English businessman last Wednesday. "After 60 years, it's time to lift U.S. sanctions against Cuba. Let's stand for integration, not isolation," Branson tweeted.

Este multimillonario quiere hacer más negocios y más dinero con la esclavitud, el terror y los presos políticos de la dictadura asesina comunista de Cuba. Crece a diario la falta de vergüenza de los grandes oligarcas en su desprecio a libertad, democracia y al ser humano. https://t.co/bEaWM4xLqU

— Hermann Tertsch (@hermanntertsch) February 11, 2022

Sir Richard Charles Charles Nicholas Branson is a 71-year-old English billionaire known for his Virgin brand. He owns more than 360 companies that make up Virgin Group, with businesses in areas as far-flung as the recording industry and private flights into space. According to Forbes, in 2021 he had a net worth of about $5.9 billion.

Branson traveled to Havana in June 2005 to celebrate the inaugural flight of his airline Virgin Atlantics Airways to Cuba. During his visit, he met with Cuban regime officials, including scientist Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart (who committed suicide in 2018), son of dictator Fidel Castro, and then Minister of Tourism Manuel Marrero Cruz, now Cuba's prime minister.

Branson has remained in contact with the island's ruling families and the tycoon hopes that the sanctions against Cuba will be lifted to increase his collaboration with the communist regime.

"Pleasure meeting Fidel Castro's grandson, Fidel Antonio, and discussing scientific cooperation and advancement,” Branson wrote in 2017, posting on Twitter a photograph of his trip to Cuba that year. Fidel Antonio Castro Smirnov holds a PhD in Science and is a professor at the University of Computer Science (UCI) in Havana.

In another tweet in November 2017, Branson posted a picture with Marrero Cruz at the Hotel Nacional. He said it was a "great visit to Cuba looking at future travel opportunities with Virgin Voyages and discussing US-Cuba cooperation."

Virgin Voyages is a cruise line based in Plantation, Florida and a joint venture between Virgin Group and Bain Capital. "Delighted to share that Cuba will be the first destination for Virgin Voyages on our inaugural voyage," posted Branson in October 2018.

However, in June 2019, then-U.S. President Donald Trump froze Branson's business plans in the island when he banned cruise travel to Cuba as he expanded the U.S. trade embargo on the Castro government.

A month before the popular uprising against the communist government on July 11-12, 2021, Branson spoke on the 90 Miles podcast "about Cuba, [and] how entrepreneurship can have a positive impact on the world and how we learn and grow as entrepreneurs." The human rights of Cubans were absent from his speech.

Cuba is among the nations with the worst democracy index in Latin America, according to the latest report by The Economist. With 2.59 points out of a possible 10, together with Venezuela (2.11), Nicaragua (2.69) and Haiti (3.48), the Caribbean country forms the quartet of the worst nations in the continent.

The island is ranked 142nd in the world, after scoring zero in electoral processes and pluralism, and below passing in civil liberties (2.65), government functioning (3.21), political participation (3.33) and political culture (3.75).