Former Trump Advisor Eyes Cuba’s Mineral Wealth

Sherritt International, a Canadian mining company that has operated for decades in Cuba, announced Tuesday it is no longer dissolving operations on the island, but instead negotiating a majority sale of shares to U.S.-based Gillon Capital, a family private investment firm headed by former Trump advisor Ray Washburne.

Earlier this May, Sherritt announced that it would halt its mining operations in Cuba following Trump’s May 1 secondary sanctions, saying the “executive order itself creates conditions that materially alter the Corporation’s ability to operate.”

Washburne is a close ally of Trump. He was appointed by Trump during his first administration as CEO of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a U.S. government agency that “helps American businesses expand into developing markets by providing them with tools to manage risks associated with foreign direct investment."

In 2019, Washburne was appointed to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board as well as the Advisory Board of SOUTHCOM. 

​According to a statement issued by Sherritt, the State Department and Treasury Department have stated they “do not object to Gillon Capital’s engagement in negotiations” with Sherritt, nor do they “consider such negotiations to be contrary to U.S. law.”

The offer “came out of nowhere,” said Sherritt’s interim CEO, Peter Hancock, adding that he “didn’t foresee that.” 

“This deal happened because an actor in the United States was able to make a case to the U.S. State Department,” Hancock noted, suggesting that “the posture of the U.S. government with respect to this deal opens up a much wider world of financing.”

Ben Rowswell, a former Canadian ambassador to Venezuela, told the Financial Post that this recent development offers “further insight into the changing character of the U.S. relationship with the region as it’s turning into an extractive predator.”