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The Florida Republican state senator Ileana García participated on Tuesday in the Free Cuba Rally held in Hialeah and expressed her conviction that the end of the regime is irreversible.
"I don't believe there is any turning back," he stated, although he acknowledged the tremendous challenges involved in rebuilding what he described as "a rotting country, with no monetary system, no system of any kind."
The event, which brought together leaders, activists, and artists at Milander Park, had thousands of Cuban-Americans gathered at Ted Hendricks Stadium.
The senator, daughter of Cuban refugees, offered an emotional moment by revealing that her grandmother is 100 years old and has asked her to hold on a little longer to see Cuba free.
"My grandmother is 100 years old and I told her the other day: stay with me a little longer so you can see the freedom of Cuba," she shared with Martí Noticias.
The politician also expressed her personal desire to visit Cuba with her family, even though she was born in the United States.
Despite the crisis that Cuba is going through, García asserts that he trusts in the ability of Cubans to move forward.
He also urged for the codification and advancement of the Helms-Burton Act, "created with the purpose of eliminating the regime," and expressed his faith in the group of Cuban-Americans in Congress and the Trump administration to help establish a new government on the Island.
In one of the moments that generated the most applause, García, co-founder of the "Latinas for Trump" movement, suggested Marco Rubio as a presidential candidate for 2028, a proposal that the exile strongly applauded.
Her request marks a shift in the senator's stance, who in recent months had distanced herself from President Donald Trump due to his immigration policies, which she deemed inhumane.
In January, Ileana García asserted that Trump's migratory offensive had shifted "from uncomfortable to unsustainable" and warned that it could cost the party the 2026 midterm elections.
The Free Cuba Rally was called by the mayor of Hialeah, Bryan Calvo, 28 years old, a graduate of Harvard Law School and the youngest in the city's history, in collaboration with the Cuba Anti-Communist Foundation.
"We want change in Cuba, and what does that look like? It looks like a complete regime change," Calvo declared before the crowd that filled the stadium with Cuban and American flags, hats bearing the slogans "Make Cuba Great Again" and "Cuba Libre," and chants such as "Cuba Next" shouted by the exiles in Hialeah.
Among the attendees were the opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer, forcibly exiled in Miami since October 2025; activist Rosa María Payá; and Alexander Otaola, president of the Cuban Anti-Communist Foundation, who called for real actions from Trump to end the PCC, concluding the evening by stating, "freedom is very close, freedom can be felt in the air."
The event also featured performances by Yotuel Romero, El Chacal, Jacob Forever, Lena Burke, and Amaury Gutiérrez.
One of the most viral images of the night was that of a 92-year-old Cuban dancing and shouting Cuba Libre. "It’s a joy for everyone. And I know it's coming soon! I came from Cuba and I’ve never returned," she declared amidst tears and dancing, becoming a symbol of a generation that has been waiting for that moment for decades.
The rally took place against a backdrop of unprecedented pressure on the regime in decades: Cuba is facing blackouts lasting between 15 and 25 hours daily and an energy deficit close to 1,900 MW, while an economic contraction forecast of 7.2% of GDP in 2026 has accumulated a decline of 23% since 2019, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit.
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