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The U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, defended this Wednesday, during remarks to the press at a meeting with CARICOM leaders in Saint Kitts and Nevis, that the shipment and sale of Venezuelan oil intended for the private sector in Cuba does not represent a change in policy but rather an expansion of licenses already contemplated by U.S. regulations.
Rubio made the statements in comments to the press released by the State Department, in response to an announcement from the Treasury Department regarding sales for humanitarian reasons to private companies on the island.
"No, it has always been legal to sell to the private sector in Cuba," said Rubio, emphasizing that this would not involve sales to the government or to GAESA, the conglomerate owned by the military.
According to his explanation, these would be sales to "a very small private sector" that exists in Cuba, and the measure would expand the number of people licensed to do so.
The Secretary of State warned, however, that this private sector is limited and, on its own, lacks the capacity to tackle "the scale and scope" of the challenges the country faces.
Rubio stated that the Cuban people "are suffering today" and held the Cuban authorities responsible for the worst economic climate that, he said, Cuba has faced "perhaps in its history since 1959," due to decisions that left the island vulnerable to the current crisis.
In his explanation, he argued that Cuba has survived for decades on subsidies and that, after the Soviet collapse, support came from Hugo Chávez.
He added that Nicolás Maduro's regime provided fuel or crude oil, a portion of which was refined for domestic consumption, while "a large percentage" was sold on the open market to obtain cash intended to finance the regime and the military company.
Rubio insisted that the crisis presents an opportunity to import fuel "in small quantities" through the private sector, and warned that if any diversion to the regime or the military enterprise is detected, the licenses will be revoked.
Rubio added that if the regime were to allow the growth of a private sector independent of the government and the military apparatus, “that solution is there.”
He also assured that if Cubans "are hungry and suffering, it is not because we are unwilling to help them," but because "those who stand in the way are the regime and the Communist Party."
As a comparison, he recalled that U.S. humanitarian assistance following a hurricane was channeled "through the Catholic Church, not the government," and stated that Washington is prepared to act similarly with fuel through the private sector, although he emphasized that this alone will not solve Cuba's problems, which he attributed to decades of mismanagement and ineptitude.
In the context of CARICOM in Saint Kitts and Nevis, Rubio also stated that Cuba will only be able to have a better future if it adopts a different economic model from the current one, which he described as nonexistent and nonfunctional.
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