For the first time in 50 years a maritime vessel will be taking humanitarian aid straight to Cuba from Miami, but not without controversy.
International Port Corporation, based in Miami, will be making the shipments once a week, the only Florida company to do so. The first shipment of packages is expected to leave Miami Wednesday morning and arrive in Cuba Thursday morning.
"It will in a sense be a historic event because the first humanitarian ship leaving directly from Miami to Cuba is a big event," said Leonardo Sanchez, with International Port.
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But the packages are causing controversy among some Cuban exiles, including Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who sent a letter to the federal government last month asking for an investigation into possible violations of U.S. law.
"I am referring this matter to your attention to determine, within all applicable rules and guidelines, if the International Port Corporation is in violation of any provision of law, particularly Helms-Burton...which states that no vessel that enters Cuba to engage in the trade of goods may enter a U.S. port for the purpose of loading or unloading freight for a period of 180 days from the date the vessel departed Cuba," the June 19 letter reads.
International Port says all the items shipped are humanitarian help and not commercial or for sale on the Communist island, and that the company has all the proper permits and licenses from the federal government.
"We are legally sanctioned, we have an OFAC license and we have a license from the Department of Commerce. All of our licenses were acquired openly," Sanchez said. "We've had conversations with the Coast Guard and Homeland Security, so pretty much everybody knows what we were doing."
Sanchez said the crew will offload the packages once the ship arrives and no crewmember will disembark. They won't even buy fuel in Cuba and the ship will leave by the next day.
Ros-Lehtinen's office told NBC 6 it hasn't heard back from the government in response to her letter.
