Related videos:
Republican lawmakers from Florida intensified their calls this Thursday for a regime change in Cuba, following the armed confrontation that took place on Wednesday off the coast of the island, which resulted in the deaths of four men from Florida due to gunfire from Cuban troops.
The incident, which once again strains the relationship between Washington and Havana, triggered a wave of reactions among politicians from the state with the highest concentration of Cuban-Americans in the United States, reported the media Político.
"We need that regime to go," declared Congressman Carlos Giménez in an interview with Fox News.
He believed that “The regime is causing this humanitarian crisis in Cuba. And the sooner they leave, the sooner we can help the Cuban people.”
Giménez, who has advocated for years for the overthrow of the Cuban government, reiterated his hardline stance and maintained that the situation on the island demonstrates the urgency for political change.
"They are slowly suffocating to death, which for me cannot come soon enough," she stated.
The congressman Byron Donalds also called for the collapse of the "communist regime," while senator Rick Scott demanded that the Cuban government "be held accountable" for what happened on Wednesday.
The congresswoman María Elvira Salazar also expressed distrust towards the official account from Havana. In a message posted on X, she stated that "the regime's version of the events in Cuba can never be taken as truth" and called for a thorough investigation.
The Attorney General of Florida, James Uthmeier, stated that his office has jurisdictional authority to investigate potential crimes involving vessels and passengers departing from the state. “We will work with the Trump administration and Secretary Rubio to get to the bottom of this,” he noted.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, announced from Saint Kitts, where he is participating in a summit with Caribbean leaders, that the United States will conduct its own investigation before drawing conclusions.
"We are not going to base our conclusions on what we have been told," Rubio said. "I am very, very confident that we will learn the full story of what happened here."
Cuban authorities stated that the boat violated territorial waters and that its occupants intended to carry out a "terrorist infiltration." However, relatives of some of the victims have expressed surprise at these accusations, and Florida lawmakers have questioned the official account.
The political reaction comes at a time when the Trump administration has intensified its pressure on Havana, blocking oil shipments from Venezuela and threatening sanctions against countries that assist the Cuban government.
President Donald Trump declared last month that "Cuba seems ready to fall," following the capture in January of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, one of Havana's key allies.
However, the White House also recently announced that it would authorize the sale of Venezuelan oil to the Cuban market under certain conditions, in a strategy aimed at influencing the private sector on the island.
Filed under: