A Cuban night is no longer quiet. It is filled with the metallic rhythm of thousands of families striking spoons against empty pots in the darkness. This is the sound of a funeral for a failed ideology. The brutal communist regime imposed on Cuba by the Castro family is collapsing in real time. Its economy is in free fall, its people are hungry and the dictatorship is running out of money and fuel.
After more than six decades of repression, the corrupt regime is weaker today than at any point in my lifetime. I know that personally. I lived under it. I fled it. Today I am the only Cuban-born member of the United States Congress.
This moment demands clarity and resolve from the United States. We are closer than ever to ending the tyranny imposed by the Castro family and their loyal enforcers in Havana, but only if we maintain a firm strategy. My message to the world, to those forced from their homeland, and to the regime is simple. There will be no major investments, no bailouts and no economic lifelines unless there is dramatic political change on the island.
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Any discussion with the bankrupt dictatorship in Havana must begin from a position of strength. Economic relief should only follow real change. The regime must release all political prisoners, restore human rights and dismantle the totalitarian structures of the Castro dictatorship, as demanded by U.S. law codified in the LIBERTAD Act of 1996, which outlines the conditions for lifting the economic embargo on the regime.
At this moment, the regime carries roughly $46 billion in foreign debt, while its principal sources of revenue have collapsed. Remittances have dropped nearly 70%. Tourism income has fallen more than 68%. Revenue from exporting medical professionals has declined more than 53%. At the same time, the island’s crumbling power grid has collapsed, plunging millions of Cubans into constant blackouts.
These numbers reveal the truth about the economic model imposed by the Castros. The crisis is not the result of outside pressure. It is the outcome of decades of a failed ideology, corruption, central planning and economic mismanagement. For more than 67 years, the regime drained the country’s infrastructure while enriching its henchmen.
Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the United States has restored a clear policy toward authoritarian regimes. Dictatorships that abuse their people will not be rewarded with economic lifelines.
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We have seen this approach produce results elsewhere. In Venezuela, sustained pressure exposed the fragility of the Maduro dictatorship and forced negotiations it long resisted. In Iran, sanctions and diplomatic pressure constrained the regime’s ability to fund destabilizing activities abroad. Authoritarian regimes that depend on outside resources become vulnerable when the democratic world acts with unity and strength.
The dictatorship in Havana is no exception. The Castro regime needs the United States far more than the United States needs the regime. Havana depends on foreign currency, imported food, fuel and international legitimacy. President Trump’s decisive actions give the United States critical leverage to affect change in Cuba.
Every night, thousands of Cubans take to the streets in towns across the island. In the City of Moron on the eastern side of the island, the townspeople even set fire to the Communist Party’s headquarters during a massive protest.
The dictatorship has responded in the only way it knows: repression. More than 1,400 political prisoners remain behind bars, patriots whose only crime was demanding freedom. President Donald Trump has an opportunity to help change the course of history. If the regime once again resorts to massacring its own people, as it has in the past, the United States must make clear that such brutality will not be tolerated.
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I urge President Trump to send a stark and unmistakable warning to the regime in Havana about the consequences they will face if they continue to repress the Cuban people.
Yet the courage of the Cuban people continues to shine through the darkness. Across the island, the cry of Patria y Vida grows louder every day.
To my brothers and sisters on the island. We hear your pots and pans echo through the night. We see your courage in the darkness. Your voices carry across the Florida Straits and into the hearts of millions who still dream of a free Cuba. Every protest and every chant for Libertad brings the island closer to the freedom its people deserve.
The night imposed by the Castros has lasted far too long. But the Cuban people have never stopped believing in the sunrise.
