United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that, five years after the July 11 demonstrations, Cubans deserve ‘a better future.’
‘Five years ago, thousands of Cubans took to the streets to demand a better future for themselves and their families, seeking change after decades of repression and economic incompetence by the Communist regime,’ said Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants residing in Miami, in a statement. ‘True to form, the regime responded with brutality, beating peaceful demonstrators in the streets and arresting thousands of everyday Cubans.
‘To this day, hundreds of Cubans remain unjustly detained for the simple sin of asking for basic rights, opportunities, and dignity,’ he added, reiterating the Trump administration’s call for ‘the immediate release of these, and all, political prisoners in Cuba.
‘President Trump and I want a better future for Cuba and its long-suffering people,’ Rubio continued. ‘After decades of repression and gross mismanagement, Cuba’s economy is in freefall, and its people continue to suffer blackouts, hunger, and deprivation.’
The US Secretary of State claimed that the United States has always supported the Cuban people with humanitarian assistance and exports of food, medicine, and critical goods.
He said the Trump administration has also offered Cuba aid, assistance with reconstruction, and ‘the promise of a new relationship between our two countries, if the regime will only agree to make political and economic reforms to allow the country a chance at prosperity.
‘Sadly, the regime and its corrupt elites continue to refuse any efforts at meaningful reform, instead continuing to prioritize perpetuating their own total control over the Cuban people, and their dogmatic adherence to their failed and morally bankrupt Marxist ideology,’ Rubio said.
‘While the people cry out for reform, Cuba’s Communist overlords continue to consolidate economic control, steal and squirrel away overseas what few resources remain, and blame others for their failures,’ he added.
‘They continue to ally themselves with America’s enemies, presenting a serious national security threat to our nation by hosting hostile foreign military, intelligence, terror, and operations less than 100 miles from our homeland and supporting dangerous subversive and terror networks in the United States itself,’ Rubio continued.
He said the United States will continue to ‘use every tool’ at its disposal to ‘both address the national security threats posed by the Cuban Communist regime, and to drive the economic and political reforms to give Cuba a better future.
‘Cuba’s leaders must simply choose to commit themselves to real reforms, peace and prosperity-before it is too late,’ Rubio warned.
On July 4, as the United States commemorated its 250th Anniversary of Independence, the Trump administration said it was imposing sanctions on ‘Cuban actors’ allegedly responsible for subversive anti-American activities.
The US Department of State said that it is designating five entities and five individuals as part of the ‘Trump administration’s comprehensive push to end the Cuban regime’s decades-long campaign of political, ideological, and institutional warfare against the United States and to hold accountable those who sustain its operations and profit from the Cuban people’s oppression.
‘The Cuban regime continues to demonstrate that it prioritizes the exportation of radical left-wing violence through its malign influence networks and the enrichment of the regime over the well-being of the Cuban people,’ it said. ‘These sanctions are designed to hold international actors supporting the Cuban regime accountable.’
The department warned that foreign banks and companies providing services to those designated are at risk of sanctions and should freeze those activities.
‘The Trump administration will continue to target the Cuban regime’s subversive network, those who enable its subversive operations, and those who profit while the Cuban people suffer,’ it said, stating that ‘all targets’ designated on Saturday have been designated ‘pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14404, which authorizes sanctions on persons determined to meet specified criteria related to repression in Cuba and threats to US national security and foreign policy.’
The State Department said entities associated with ‘developing, implementing, and funding the Cuban regime’s violent revolutionary network are being designated.’