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The mayor of Miami, Eileen Higgins, assured that the city has a contingency plan ready for the day of Cuba's freedom, in an interview broadcast this Sunday on the program "Al Punto Florida" on Univisión.
«We are not very, very well prepared. We have worked through tables with a plan because when this happens, because all of us are waiting for the day when Cuba is free, and in our community, there will be people celebrating or demonstrating. The most important thing is that everyone can participate in a safe manner,» declared Higgins around the 45-minute mark of the program broadcast on YouTube.
The plan includes the deployment of police, firefighters, and paramedics, considering that the celebration will take place in the middle of summer.
"We have the police prepared, as well as our fire department and paramedics because we will be in the middle of summer and sometimes people get too hot. We are fully prepared. Our team also talks daily with state authorities and federal government officials to be ready," the official added.
Regarding Miami Bay, Higgins clarified that the city does not have authority over the vessels, but its responsibility is to save lives.
"We are not going to allow any boat, nothing at all, where people are at risk of losing their lives. But after we save these people, we have to wait for the Coast Guard and the federal government. They are in charge of overseeing this matter," he explained.
Higgins' statements come at a time of heightened expectation within the Cuban exile community in Miami, driven by the Trump administration's maximum pressure policy towards the Havana regime.
Last Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new sanctions against GAESA, the Cuban military conglomerate, its executive president Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, and the mining company Moa Nickel S.A.
In the same program, Senator Rick Scott stated exclusively that "the freedom of Cuba is much closer" and that military action is possible, though not necessarily essential.
Analyst Luis Zúñiga, from the Cuban Assembly of Resistance, was more direct: "Conditions are already being prepared for an operation if the regime resists the solution that has been proposed to it."
The State Department has pointed out that GAESA controls illicit assets amounting to over 20 billion dollars and that its revenues triple the Cuban state budget, without that money benefiting the people of the island.
Higgins also reviewed her first 100 days as the first woman to lead the Miami mayor's office, a position she took on December 20, 2025.
Among his achievements, he highlighted the streamlining of the permit system for homeowners, the opening of Flagler Street after 10 years of construction, the acceleration of affordable housing, and the management of nearly 400 million dollars in federal funding for the train between downtown Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
In the long term, his priority is public safety: he proposes a bond in the August elections to renovate police and fire department facilities, many of which are over 50 years old and lack potable water, without raising existing fees.
Foreign companies linked to GAESA have until June 5, 2026 to close their operations under threat of secondary sanctions, a date that coincides with the arrival of the World Cup in Miami.
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