The Cuban-American congresswoman María Elvira Salazar issued a direct warning to Miguel Díaz-Canel this Thursday during a hearing titled "Latin America After the Fall of Maduro" by the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of the House of Representatives: the head of the Cuban regime stated that he would not relinquish power, which is exactly what Nicolás Maduro claimed before being captured.
"A few days ago, the main Cuban puppet said on television that he was not stepping down from power, that he wasn't going anywhere. Well, Maduro said the same thing a few months ago, and look where he is now," declared Salazar in his opening speech at the hearing.
The comment was a direct response to the statements made by Díaz-Canel recently to NBC News, where he claimed that resigning is not part of our vocabulary and reacted with irritation to the journalist interviewing him: "Is that your question or the State Department's?".
Salazar, who chairs the subcommittee and represents Florida's 27th district, drew a parallel between both leaders and described the Cuban regime as the most vulnerable in its 65 years of existence.
"The communist regime in Cuba is on life support. Trump just needs to unplug it," stated the lawmaker.
Salazar pointed out that the Cubans on the island have taken to the streets more than 200 times in the past month and even went so far as to burn down the headquarters of the Communist Party in the city of Morón.
"Cubans have lost their fear. And even more importantly, they have lost their belief in the invincibility of the Castro regime, which has resided in the soul of every Cuban for the past 65 years," he stated.
The main witness at the hearing was Ambassador Michael Kozak, a senior official from the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department, who confirmed that Washington is holding discussions with the Cuban regime overseen by President Trump and Secretary Marco Rubio, although he declined to reveal details about the interlocutors or the content of the negotiations.
Kozak was emphatic about the limits of any possible agreement: "We will not do any business with the Castros. They need to leave, and then we need to start anew."
The diplomat also confirmed that, following Maduro's capture on January third, Cuba lost its main benefactor: Venezuela had been supplying approximately 170,000 barrels of oil daily essentially for free, of which the regime resold 60% on the open market to obtain foreign currency.
Moreover, Kozak reported that hundreds of Cuban security agents operating in Venezuela have left the country since Maduro's capture.
The audience also included critical voices. Democratic representative Joaquín Castro warned that Trump could try to replicate in Cuba what happened in Venezuela: "I believe the president went to Venezuela because he also saw it as an easy victory. And after the embarrassment he is now facing, I think he will target Cuba. And that would be a disaster for the Cuban people, for the region, and for the United States."
The representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz dismissed the idea that the so-called "Venezuelan model" could be replicated in Cuba: "Secret negotiations that result in handpicking a successor from within the dictatorship, making a deal with the regime for a portion of blood-stained money, lifting sanctions on those who have brutally repressed Cubans... cannot be the way this unfolds."
Salazar concluded his remarks with a message that summarizes the stance of the Republican wing of Congress: "For the first time, the entrenched Castro machinery is vulnerable. You cannot reform a system that was built on repression. It must be replaced."
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