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In 2013, Beyoncé and Jay Z randomly (and controversially) popped up in Cuba to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary. Just 18 months later, President Obama has announced a normalization of U.S.-Cuban relations.
Coincidence? A certain segment of Twitter thinks not.
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Consider: Beyoncé and Jay Z’s trip was in April 2013 — 20 months ago.
Back-channel negotiations between U.S. and Cuba began “about 18 months ago,” according to the New York Times.
Beyoncé and Jay Z traveled on a special people-to-people travel visa granted by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The visit caused Sen. Marco Rubio to blast the couple.
“We are allowing people to travel to Cuba as tourists. They’re delivering hard currency to a tyrannical regime who then turns around and uses that to oppress its people,” he told CNN at the time.
The uproar cased the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General to investigate the trip, and it released a nine-page report in August declaring the trip legal.
Beyoncé and Jay Z are notably chummy with President Obama and the first lady.
Is this all coincidence? Did Beyoncé’s star power alone begin to thaw relations?
Probably not, but to a certain type of American, everything revolves around Queen Bey.
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