Beyonce, Jay-Z in Hot Water Over Vacation

Florida lawmakers unhappy with the destination: Cuba
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 6, 2013 4:41 PM CDT
Lawmakers: Let's Probe Beyonce, Jay-Z Trip to Cuba
Beyonce and her husband, rapper Jay-Z, right, tours Old Havana as a body guard, left, and tour guide, right, accompany them in Cuba, Thursday, April 4, 2013.   (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Two Florida lawmakers want to know why Beyonce and Jay-Z were celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary in Cuba—where most Americans are still forbidden to travel, CNN reports. "Numerous press reports described the couple’s trip as tourism, and the Castro regime touted it as such in its propaganda," wrote Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, both Republicans, in a letter to the Treasury Department. The lawmakers called for a Treasury agency to investigate the visit.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, the head of a PAC that promotes democracy in Cuba, added to the outcry: "There are women getting beaten on a daily basis, women who are being jailed for no reason ... people are fighting for their freedom," he told TMZ. "It’s extremely insensitive." A US embargo makes it illegal for Americans to visit Cuba without a "cultural exchange" license, but many still go there from neighboring countries, the Huffington Post reports. Maybe that's how the high-powered pair got to Havana, where they set off flashbulbs as they dined in restaurants and visited historical sites. (More Jay-Z stories.)

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