Congressman Carlos Giménez warns: "The Castro dictatorship is once again selling Cuba to Russia"

The Cuban-American congressmanCarlos Gimenez launched a warning message in the face of what it considered a new and dangerous wave of transfer of sovereignty by the Havana regime to the interests of Russia'sVladimir Putin.

“Castro's communist dictatorship is once again selling the island of Cuba to Russia; "The regime even supports Putin's war against Ukraine," the Republican denounced this Sunday through his social networks.

In his Twitter post, Giménez addressed the president of the United States,Joe Biden, to criticize his policy of “appeasement” towards Havana and called for a tougher hand against the Cuban regime, which he described as a dangerous ally of Putin in the region.

“Instead of appeasing the Castros, the US president should impose sanctions against the brutal regime!” added the politician, linking to an article from a Florida media reporting on Moscow's dangerous approach toMiguel Diaz-Canel, a ruler appointed by the dictatorRaul Castro, lacking legitimacy and popular support, and incapable of getting the country out of the deep crisis it is going through.

The news that his government has offered Russian companiesthe right to use the island's land in usufruct for a period of 30 years, worried the Cuban-American congressman about Florida.

“Allowing Russian companies to lease land may be particularly controversial because American citizens and companies still have certified property rights over land confiscated byFidel Castro shortly after he assumed power in 1959,” indicated an article by the journalistNora Gámez Torres.

Published inThe New Herald Under the title of “In an unprecedented move, Cuba will allow Russians to lease land as the two countries move closer,” the article reviewed the latest agreements reached between both authoritarian regimes amid the increasingly critical context of the invasion. Russia to Ukraine and the support of Western countries for the attacked country.

"They are giving us preferential treatment", he admittedBoris Titov, head of the Cuban-Russian Business Committee,during the opening of a bilateral forum inaugurated last Wednesday in Havana, recognizing that the Cuban authorities privilege business with the Russian oligarchy before any other foreign investment.

The transfer to Russian agricultural producers of Cuban land in usufruct, the exemption of different tariffs for Russian companies, the facilities to repatriate profits to Russia, the expeditious processes for the officialization of mixed companies, as well as the possibility of operating in currencies premises or the installation of a maritime port line that connects both nations in the style of the time of the existence of the Soviet Union, are examples of the relationship that the Cuban power is trying to establish with its Russian counterparts, described as toxic and selfish by activists ofCuban civil society.

At the end of January, Russian experts from the Stolipin Institute of Growth Economics visiting Havana announced the creation of an Economic Transformation Center to promote reforms in the Cuban economy.

Russian specialists will supervise the preparation ofa program to transform the Cuban economy which will be based on the development of the private company, reported the Russian state news agency Sputnik.

The joint center will also include, on the Russian side, experts from the Center for Strategic Development and the Institute of National Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as, on the Cuban side, representatives of key ministries and the Central bank.

For the Siglo XXI ideas laboratory, an independent Cuban civil society organization based in Madrid, the agreement of the Cuban totalitarian regime with the Russian oligarch Titov confirms its “transition towards a market mafia state like Putin's.”

“Those forces that in democratic countries with the rule of law and free markets have been advocating for constructive relations with the Cuban power elite must discard illusions and take due note that it has already decided, formally and publicly, to 'modernize' its mafia state in close alliance with the worst enemy of the West at this moment: Putin's Russia," the entity said in astatement.