By Eloy Viera Cañive (El Toque)
HAVANA TIMES – Data on vehicle imports to Cuba from the United States showed an uptick of about 65% during January and February 2024. Despite the lack of public information currently available, other less specific indicators seem to indicate a similar trend in these operations for March and April.
Cuban-American businessman Alejandro Martinez, who is very active on social media, is the visible face of the Maravana Cargo company, with a license to export vehicles to Cuba. In his declarations, he confirmed that the general length of time between the receipt of cars in their installations, and their delivery to Cuba was a matter of mere days.
The truth of Martinez’ claims can be verified by monitoring some of the cargo ships used to transport goods between Cuba and the US. According to information on such social media profiles as @FalconEyes on X – an online site dedicated to monitoring maritime traffic to and from Cuba – a boat named Linda delivers vehicles from the US to Cuba nearly weekly.
Linda is a ship that sails under the Panamanian flag. According to the site “Marine Traffic,” it’s a boat termed “Ro-Ro” (roll-on / roll-off) – ships that transport rolling cargo, be it automobiles, trucks, trailers or industrial vehicles. This type of boat has ramps in the stern or bow of the vehicle (these can also be fixed on land) to make it much easier to load (roll-on) and unload (roll-off) the merchandise.
According to a report from @FalconEyes, from November 2023 to March 31, 2024, Linda made 21 voyages from Miami to the Cuban port of Mariel. A report from the online site 14ymedio indicates that there was another voyage on April 9, 2024; and El Toque was able to confirm on the “Marine Traffic” platform that it left South Florida once again on April 17, arriving in Cuba the next day.
How is it possible for a boat to make so many trips between Cuba and the US over such a short time, if the United States embargo specifies that a ship that docks in a Cuban port can’t dock again in the US until six months have passed?
It’s clear that this “180-day regulation” forms part of the provisions of the US embargo against Cuba. It prohibits any ship that enters a Cuban port to commercialize goods or services, from reentering a US port to load or unload merchandise for six months after their departure from Cuba.
Nonetheless, in 2016, the US government established certain exceptions to the rule; for exa