Trump administration pressed to close Cuba embargo loophole with oil set to run out within days

By Fox News · Fox News

EXCLUSIVE : Three members of Congress representing heavily Cuban-American districts are demanding the Trump administration shut off the remaining commercial "valves" of support for the communist Castro and Díaz-Canel regime in Havana after effectively blockading key oil imports in recent days. The demand from Reps. Carlos Giménez, Mario Díaz-Balart and María Elvira Salazar, all Republicans from Florida, comes as Cuban despot Miguel Díaz-Canel warned his country is "close to failing," according to German outlet Deutsche Welle. Díaz-Canel also warned oil supplies may run out within 15 days amid the threat of U.S. tariffs on exporters to Cuba. While Díaz-Canel called the U.S.-imposed oil blockade "genocidal" and "fascist," Giménez, Díaz-Balart and Salazar saw it as a positive development and said they will demand Tuesday that the Commerce Department shut off the other remaining lifelines to the dictatorship that Washington can control. Those valves come in the form of export licenses for more than $100 million in supplies they say largely go not to the Cuban people but directly to enrich the regime. CUBAN-BORN REP RECOUNTS EMOTIONAL RETURN 64 YEARS LATER AS PART OF GITMO CODEL Luxury cars, Jacuzzi tubs and other luxury items remain open to export through licenses given to several Miami-area firms, according to Giménez’s office, which provided Fox News Digital with a 50-page document detailing manifests of goods cleared by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to be shipped to addresses listed on the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana, Marianao and elsewhere. Giménez, Díaz-Balart and Salazar wrote to Commerce Under Secretary Jeffrey Kessler and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control Director Bradley Smith, demanding they take action on these licenses. "[We are] beyond concerned by U.S. businesses currently engaged in disturbing commercial activity with entities controlled by the regime in Cuba, a listed State Sponsor of Terrorism," the lawmakers…