OFAC targets Cuba aid travelers who criticize Trump

OFAC request – The Trump administration’s Treasury watchdog has sent Code Pink a formal request for information tied to a March humanitarian convoy to Havana, seeking detailed records of what participants did, who traveled, and how donations were handled—an inquiry organizer

By the time the plane touched down in Havana. the message was already baked into the trip: people were going to bring medicine. food and other aid. and they were going to say publicly that current U.S. policy is crushing Cuba. After the return flight, the pressure shifted from Cuba’s streets to the paperwork of U.S. sanctions enforcement.

In May. the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sent a “request for information” to the advocacy group Code Pink about its participation in an international humanitarian convoy that arrived in Havana in March. The convoy. which brought 500 people from more than 30 countries. carried an estimated 35 tons of food. medicine. solar panels and other aid to Cuba.

As part of that effort, Code Pink chartered a plane for 170 participants. The same flight also carried 6,300 pounds of medical supplies valued at $433,000 that were arranged by Global Health Partners.

Treasury officials demanded detailed answers about the group’s trip. including “everything you did while you were in Cuba. who went. how did you go. how did you pay for everything. all the receipts. the detailed description of everything you took for donations…what hotel did you stay in. ” Medea Benjamin. Code Pink’s cofounder. said.

Benjamin said she believes the May 21 OFAC inquiry is aimed at damping public criticism of President Donald Trump’s approach to Cuba—an approach she and others say includes “asphyxiating the Cuban economy” and threatening a military attack. In her view, the federal review is meant to intimidate activists who oppose the administration’s policy.

“This is taking place for a purpose. ” Benjamin said. adding. “I think it’s intimidation. totally. and we don’t want to be intimidated.” She urged participants in the convoy not to let the scrutiny deter them. “We’re telling all the people who went with us don’t be intimidated. Just use this as another spark in the fire to challenge this sadistic policy,” Benjamin said.

Code Pink, Benjamin added, has begun compiling the information OFAC requested. “We think we didn’t do anything wrong.”

The inquiry threatens to ripple far beyond one advocacy group. Experts say it lands on an island already battered by the collapse of basic services and by U.S. pressure that many Americans encounter only through official rules about travel.

“This will certainly serve to chill travel to Cuba by well-meaning Americans who have every right under the current structures and categories to go to Cuba. ” said Peter Kornbluh. co-author of Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana. who has led tours to the island.

Kornbluh framed the impact as dual: it is a warning to travelers who comply and a signal to those who speak out. “But it also is a warning to anybody that opposes the cruel and anti-humanitarian nature” of the current approach to Cuba. he said. In Kornbluh’s words. “The Trump administration is weaponizing a humanitarian trip to Cuba to persecute. not just to prosecute. those who are speaking out against the cruel and malicious US policy and trying to help the Cuban people.”.

The Treasury Department’s press office did not respond to emails seeking comment. The existence of the inquiry was previously reported by Fox News Digital. which also said others received a “subpoena. ” including left wing influencer Hasan Piker. who traveled to Havana on the Code Pink charter. On Twitch, Piker told his audience that as of last week “your boy has yet to receive a subpoena.”.

While the federal government’s scrutiny of U.S. travelers in Cuba dates back decades, the scope and tone have shifted with changes in Washington’s posture toward Havana. Kornbluh said that after President Barack Obama sought to thaw relations and visited Havana in 2016. OFAC generally left travelers alone. with “Obama basically decid[ing] that OFAC should be out of the travel curtailment business.”.

Even during Trump’s first term, Americans kept coming. The Cuban government reported that travel reached a record 638,000 visitors in 2018, despite Trump’s tightening of some categories of travel. Robert Muse. a Washington. D.C. lawyer who counsels clients on OFAC compliance. said there were few. if any. reports of the U.S. government demanding records of travelers to Cuba during Trump’s first term or during President Joe Biden’s term.

Under current rules. Americans can travel to Cuba for any of 12 authorized reasons. including “support for the Cuban people. ” “humanitarian projects. ” and “educational activities.” Code Pink traveled under the category of “support for the Cuban people. ” Benjamin said. She described what that means under the regulations: having a schedule of activities that produce meaningful interaction with Cuban people.

Some members of the group spent the time painting a mural with Cuban artists. Benjamin said. while others followed a daily schedule of activities posted in their hotel. Those activities included visiting neighborhoods to meet residents, listening to speakers, and making art with children in a playground.

The convoy itself became a target of right-wing criticism in online and cable-style media accounts as it made its way into public view. The humanitarian mission drew withering attacks. including headlines like “The Flotilla of Shamelessness in Cuba.” Commentators highlighted a scene at the Havana convention center in which hundreds of convoy participants gathered one afternoon. where Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel addressed the visitors. Díaz-Canel told them: “Your presence on the island constitutes a profound demonstration of friendship. sensibility. and human commitment to the Cuban people.”.

A Fox News report on the OFAC inquiry described it as part of a “broader dragnet…of anti-US Marxists, communists and socialists.”

Muse said he expects enforcement like this to surge and recede depending on U.S.-Cuba relations. “Demands for records like the one to Code Pink go through cyclical periods depending on US-Cuba relations generally, and we’re clearly in a downdraft here,” he said.

The winds changed again in June 2025. after Trump issued a national security memorandum that instructed the Treasury to ensure that travelers comply with regulations and keep records of their activities for five years. Indeed, participants in the convoy faced lengthy questioning when they landed in Miami in March on their return from Havana. At least 18 travelers had their electronic devices searched, and some phones and laptops were confiscated for several days.

Legal experts say the stakes are high even when the conduct in question looks like ordinary travel. The maximum civil penalty for, say, engaging in tourism—an activity described as forbidden rather than permitted—can be $111,000. The maximum criminal penalty is $250. 000 and up to 20 years in prison. though lawyers say actual sentences would likely be far lower.

Muse said he is watching whether the administration escalates from administrative enforcement toward harsher proceedings. His concern is that this trip could become a template. “If they do an across-the-board set of administrative proceedings. maybe go criminal in a case or two. then they’re fitting it into maximum pressure. ” Muse said. “Rights of US citizens then become implicated. This then extends the embargo beyond Cuba and brings it home in aggressive examination of broadly First Amendment–protected activity.”.

Benjamin said Code Pink will not back away. She vowed that scrutiny of the trip would not deter activists advocating for change in Cuba policy. Last week. Code Pink was on Capitol Hill pushing for resolutions in the House and the Senate that would force votes on requiring the Trump administration to win congressional approval before launching military action against Cuba.

“The federal inquiry is taking time and energy and money,” Benjamin said, “but it’s not going not take us away from the main issue,” which she called “Cuba and what they’re suffering.”

OFAC Treasury Department Code Pink Cuba travel humanitarian convoy sanctions enforcement Medea Benjamin Miguel Díaz-Canel Hasan Piker First Amendment Trump administration