The reason is simple: Cuba is ruled by a totalitarian regime, where the authorities maintain absolute control over all complex transactions.
Just ask the 600 foreign suppliers that have had over $1 billion in Cuban accounts frozen by the Castro regime since 2008.
The exception to this logic is FIU Law Professor Jose Gabilondo.
In a Miami Herald story today, "Gabilondo said he doubts the Cuban government would risk its recent thaw in frozen diplomatic relations by being involved with such a massive scheme."
Seriously?
Mr. Gabilondo, meet Mr. Alan Gross.
He is an elderly American hostage, of the Jewish faith, in failing health, who the Castro regime has been holding in a military prison for the last two-and-a-half years.
That would certainly chill relations, don't you think?
But it hasn't stopped Castro.
Nor has the unilateral "thaw" (by the U.S.) stopped Castro from increasing political arrests and repression to 30-year highs, or from serving as an international mouthpiece for a nuclear Iran and the genocidal Assad regime.
Gabilondo's doubt is reminiscent to that of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who still hasn't figured out why Castro's answer to all of his "goodwill" was arming guerrillas in three continents and unleashing the Mariel boat-lift.
However, he is not completely alone.
Echoing Gabilondo's skepticism today was Castro regime official, Johana Tablada, who sent the following statement to the AP:
"Foreign commercial banks that maintain accounts in Cuban banks are obliged to operate in strict compliance with international and Cuban rules and must guarantee the reliability of their transactions and the correct use of their accounts."
Nice talking point, but according to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global standard setting body for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT):
"Cuba has not committed to the AML/CFT international standards, nor has it constructively directly engaged with the FATF. At the same time, Cuba attended a GAFISUD plenary as a guest and prepared an informal document on its AML/CFT regime. The FATF has identified Cuba as having strategic AML/CFT deficiencies that pose a risk to the international financial system."
