Cuban-American Billionaire on Trump Guest List
Some interesting names graced the guest list at Trump’s state dinner for Britain’s King Charles III, including José “Pepe” Fanjul and his wife Emilia, whose family controls a multi-billion dollar sugar and real-estate conglomerate and began funding Marco Rubio’s political career 25 years ago.
The Fanjuls are major power brokers in Florida. Their company, Central Romana, is also the largest private employer and landowner in the Dominican Republic. In 2022, the Biden administration blocked imports from Central Romana after U.S. customs officials found indicators of forced labor and abusive conditions among workers.
The Fanjuls donated millions of dollars to Trump’s campaign, and his administration quietly lifted the Biden era ban in 2025. Labor rights groups criticized the move, saying conditions had not improved.
Needless to say, Rubio, who has attacked Cuba’s medical missions as “forced labor” even though the doctors volunteer to go on the missions and are paid many times what they make on the island, has not expressed public concern for the sugar plantation workers employed by his benefactors.