This upcoming Sunday, the people of Venezuela will hold an election that, if legitimate, would put an end to years of the oppressive Maduro narco-regime. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued a statement in support of the Venezuelan people: “The...
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Este próximo domingo, el pueblo venezolano tendrá una elección que, de ser legítima, pondría fin a años de opresión por parte del narco-régimen de Maduro. El senador estadounidense Marco Rubio (R-FL) grabó un mensaje de video en español y emitió una declaración en...
Rubio, Scott, Colleagues to Biden Admin: No Privileges Should Be Given to 9/11 Terrorist
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Next Week: Rubio Staff Hosts Mobile Office Hours
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Rubio, Colleagues Introduce Ensuring Continuity in Veterans’ Health Act
As the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) opens up new facilities, many veterans are losing access to the VA’s Community Care Program and, consequently, their long-term healthcare providers. Veterans throughout the country have reported a loss of care, including...
Rubio Introduces Bill to Strengthen U.S.-India Security Partnership
The U.S.-India partnership is vital to countering influences from Communist China. In order to strengthen this partnership, it is essential to enhance our strategic diplomatic, economic, and military relationship with New Delhi. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)...
Rubio: A Victory for Oppression
The announcement by President Obama on Wednesday giving the Castro regime diplomatic legitimacy and access to American dollars isn’t just bad for the oppressed Cuban people, or for the millions who live in exile and lost everything at the hands of the dictatorship. Mr. Obama’s new Cuba policy is a victory for oppressive governments the world over and will have real, negative consequences for the American people.
Since the U.S. severed diplomatic relations in 1961, the Castro family has controlled the country and the economy with an iron fist that punishes Cubans who speak out in opposition and demand a better future. Under the Castros, Cuba has also been a central figure in terrorism, narco-trafficking and all manner of misery and mayhem in our hemisphere.
As a result, it has been the policy and law of the U.S. to make clear that re-establishing diplomatic and economic relations with Cuba is possible—but only once the Cuban government stops jailing political opponents, protects free speech, and allows independent political parties to be formed and to participate in free and fair elections.
The opportunity for Cuba to normalize relations with the U.S. has always been there, but the Castro regime has never been interested in changing its ways. Now, thanks to President Obama’s concessions, the regime in Cuba won’t have to change.
The entire policy shift is based on the illusion—in fact, on the lie—that more commerce and access to money and goods will translate to political freedom for the Cuban people. Cuba already enjoys access to commerce, money and goods from other nations, and yet the Cuban people are still not free. They are not free because the regime—just as it does with every aspect of life—manipulates and controls to its own advantage all currency that flows into the island. More economic engagement with the U.S. means that the regime’s grip on power will be strengthened for decades to come—dashing the Cuban people’s hopes for freedom and democracy.
Of course, like all Americans, I am overjoyed for Alan Gross and his family after his release from captivity after five years. This American had been a hostage of the regime, and it was through his imprisonment that the Cuban regime again showed the world its cruel nature.
But the policy changes announced by President Obama will have far-reaching consequences for the American people. President Obama made it clear that if you take an American hostage and are willing to hold him long enough, you may not only get your own prisoners released from U.S. jails—as three Cuban spies were—you may actually win lasting policy concessions from the U.S. as well. This precedent places a new price on the head of every American, and it gives rogue leaders around the world more clear-cut evidence of this president’s naïveté and his willingness to abandon fundamental principles in a desperate attempt to burnish his legacy. There can be no doubt that the regime in Tehran is watching closely, and it will try to exploit President Obama’s naïveté as the Iranian leaders pursue concessions from the U.S. in their quest to establish themselves as a nuclear power.
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