South Florida expert says "secondary sanctions" against foreign businesses with ventures in Cuba is unprecedented

Foreign businesses face a Friday deadline to pull out of any ventures in Cuba tied to the Cuban government or face significant financial impacts from the United States. While the U.S. has long prevented American companies from operating in Cuba, restricting foreign business on the island in this way, through what is called a "secondary sanction," has never been done before, according to one Cuban expert.

Salvador Coppola, who said he left Cuba in the 1960s after the government took all of his family's assets, including their home, expressed support for the U.S. action.

"They just came in and said, 'This is no longer yours; this has been taken over by the government,'" Coppola said. He hopes the action will "wake up the people that are investing there and spending money there and supporting what I consider to be a criminal regime".

Michael Bustamante, the Chair of Cuban Studies at the University of Miami, explained the potential consequences for companies that do not withdraw.

"The consequences for them would be the loss of access to the U.S. financial system entirely," Bustamante said. International hotel companies with business interests in both Cuba and the United States "probably cannot afford to lose their financial access to the U.S. economy," pressuring many to "significantly reduce, if not eliminate completely, their engagements in the Cuban market," he added.

Initial impacts are already being seen: Cuba's Central Bank announced that a bank processing Visa and MasterCard transactions has left, and video footage shows foreign hotels removing their signage. Additionally, company leaders risk losing their U.S. travel Visas and having their own personal assets frozen.

For Cuban citizens, Bustamante said there will be impacts. He questioned, "Whether the humanitarian suffering that is going on and that U.S. policies are making worse is going to get them to the results that they want, and in what kind of timeframe?"

Bustamante noted that while the pullout deadline is Friday, it remains unclear how quickly the U.S. will follow through on the threat for companies that do not comply.