Carlos Gutiérrez: “Corporate America Wants an Opening with Cuba”

Carlos M. Gutierrez, an American politician and businessman born in Cuba, served a tenure as U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 2005 to 2009 during President George W. Bush’s second term. After that period, he has been working hand in hand with the political and trade forces in the United States that seek an all-out rapprochement toward Cuba. He attended the opening of the U.S. embassy in Havana in the summer of 2015 and since then has been present in each edition of the Havana International Fair (FIHAV).

He’s back in Havana this year and once again with sat down with Excelencias News Cuba. Everything that has been achieved in terms of the U.S.-Cuba bilateral relations over the past three years is now in harm’s way after President Donald Trump ordered a partial rollback of what President Barack Obama fought for at the end of his second term.

The fallout is now visible. Several U.S. companies that attended FIHAV last year, have called off their attendance this time around out of fear for the retaliations the While House might wield against them.

“There’s still tremendous interest on the part of the American companies to invest in Cuba, but some of them are quite scared now because they don’t know how much trouble they can be asking for if they come to Cuba. Now on the heels of the alleged sonic attacks, the State Department issued a travel warning against Cuba and that too has had an impact on Americans that want to travel to Cuba,” Mr. Gutierrez said.

“Corporate America is very, very interested in Cuba and many businesspeople are disappointed that after all the headway that was made in recent years, after all the money they have invested, now all of a sudden Cuba is off limits again. And the fact of the matter is that corporate America wants an opening with Cuba,” he added.