County officials from Miami-Dade, political leaders, and representatives of the Cuban exile community gathered this Tuesday to express their support for the measures promoted by Congressman Carlos Giménez and to endorse the request to President Donald Trump to .
The meeting, held in Miami, brought together iconic voices of Cuban activism such as Rosa María Payá and Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, who emphasized the need to cut off the funding sources that sustain the dictatorship and to accompany political pressure with direct humanitarian aid to the people of the island.
Giménez stated that along with Congress members María Elvira Salazar and Mario Díaz-Balart, he asked President Trump to eliminate the licenses granted by the Department of Treasury and the Department of Commerce to companies operating with Cuba.
"Every dollar that enters the regime strengthens the repressive apparatus. That has to end," he emphasized.
He added that under the guise of "supposedly humanitarian" business licenses, some American companies are sending luxury products to the island.
“We are talking about Ferraris, jet skis, and recreational items that end up in the hands of the regime's elite. These are not humanitarian goods; they are luxuries for the oppressors of the Cuban people,” he stated.
The leader of Cuba Decide, Rosa María Payá, thanked the U.S. Administration for the “decisive actions to end the impunity of the Cuban regime” and asserted that “these are the most important measures taken in decades to put an end to the dictatorship.”
Payá warned that the Havana regime "threatens regional peace and is behind the largest migration crises in the hemisphere, in Cuba and Venezuela." He also noted that "Castroism is Beijing's closest ally in Latin America," which makes "ending the Cuban regime a strategic necessity."
The activist urged the U.S. Congress to accompany pressure measures with humanitarian aid for the Cuban people and with concrete actions "to cut the sources of funding for the regime and the funds that fuel repression."
“There is a need to freeze the regime's and its military's assets abroad to prevent them from continuing to use the billions of dollars stolen from the Cuban people,” he added.
"The Cuban people are suffering. Hunger, forced exile, and repression are inhumane. Nevertheless, the people continue to demand freedom. There can be no stabilization with repression. Cuba is ready for a peaceful and democratic transition, and the world must stand with us," he concluded.
On his part, the coordinator of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, supported the initiative of the congress members and called for the suspension of all commercial licenses linked to the regime.
"It is a way to free a large part of this community from control and blackmail. In places like Hialeah, we know what we are talking about. We need to cut off the lungs that keep the regime alive," he stated.
Gutiérrez Boronat insisted that within Cuba “there is a people fighting, there is resistance, but that sacrifice only makes sense if it leads to the definitive liberation of the island from the communist cancer that has oppressed it for 67 years.”
The activist José Daniel Ferrer also expressed gratitude for the support from the U.S. government and denounced “the hypocrisy of a regime that claims to lack fuel for ambulances, but has enough for repression.”
Similarly, the commissioner of Miami-Dade Natalie Milian Orbis reiterated her call to review the federal licenses that permit luxury exports to Cuba. “Ferraris, jacuzzis, and jet skis do not feed the Cuban people; they benefit the communist elite,” she warned.
The request from Cuban-American congress members is based on the LIBERTAD Act of 1996, which prohibits U.S. companies from conducting transactions with the Cuban regime as long as there are no advancements toward democracy and human rights. According to the legislators, keeping export licenses active for entities controlled by the regime “directly undermines the intent of Congress and the existing sanctions.”
The initiative has the backing of President Donald Trump, who reiterated on his Truth Social platform his “full support” for the re-election of Salazar and Giménez and promised to maintain the policy of maximum pressure until “the Castro regime and its heirs are out of power.”
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