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The U.S. Embassy in Cuba posted this Thursday a greeting on its Facebook page to Secretary of State Marco Rubio for his 55th birthday and posed a direct question to Cubans: “What message would you like to send him?”.
The response was immediate and overwhelming.
Within minutes, hundreds of comments flooded the post, nearly all expressing the same sentiment: calling for Cuba's freedom as a birthday gift for the Cuban-born official.
"Gift us a free Cuba for your birthday," wrote one of the users. "I hope you celebrate your next birthday in a free Cuba," added another.
"The Cuban people have their hopes resting in their hands," summed up a third person what seemed to be the prevailing sentiment in the comments section.
The post included a photograph of Rubio alongside the head of the mission of the Embassy in Havana, Mike Hammer, both making the "L" for Liberty gesture with their fingers and smiling.
Other messages were equally direct: "Thank you for the hope you are giving my grandmother of seeing a free Cuba," "May the next birthday be in honor of your parents, in Cuba," and "Thank you for what you will do for our Cuban people who are slowly dying."
There were those who went beyond mere desire: "Please, just enter Cuba," "With all due respect, Secretary... are they delayed in arriving?" and "Make sure he doesn't get drunk and forget that he has plans with Cuba."
Rubio, born on May 28, 1971, in Miami, is the son of Mario Rubio Reina and Oriales García Rubio, Cuban immigrants who arrived in the United States in 1956, before Fidel Castro came to power.
That family origin gives him a special symbolic legitimacy in front of the diaspora and the opposition sectors on the island.
The birthday occurs during a time of heightened pressure from Washington on Havana.
Just on Wednesday, during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Rubio once again criticized the regime, calling it "incompetent communists" and pointing to GAESA —the military conglomerate that controls 70% of the Cuban economy— as the main obstacle to the well-being of the Cuban people.
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed more than 240 sanctions against the regime, intercepted at least seven tankers carrying fuel destined for the island, and set June 5 as the deadline for foreign companies to sever ties with GAESA under the threat of secondary sanctions.
This Thursday, Axios reported that Trump believes the Cuban regime could collapse this summer and that Washington is already rehearsing contingency military plans for that scenario.
Among the comments on the Embassy's post, one user summarized it with a phrase that captures the desire of many: "May your greatest gift be to see a free Cuba."
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