U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio blasted changes in U.S.-Cuba relations announced by President Barack Obama on Wednesday, calling it a “victory for oppressive governments,” not just in Cuba, but worldwide.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Rubio warns that giving Cuba legitimacy and access to American dollars is bad for its people, the millions who live in exile, and those who lost everything at the hands of the Castro dictatorship.
Obama’s policy amounts to a victory for oppressive governments worldwide, says the Florida Senator, resulting in real, negative consequences for Americans.
Under both Fidel and Raul Castro, Rubio points out that Cuba has been a central figure in terrorism, narco-trafficking and “all manner of misery and mayhem” in the Western Hemisphere.
Since 1961, U.S. policy and law has been clear. Re-establishing diplomatic and economic relations with Cuba is conceivable, but only when the government “stops jailing political opponents, protects free speech, and allows independent political parties to be formed,” with free and fair elections.
Cuba always had the opportunity to normalize relations with the U.S., Rubio says, but the Castro regime refused to change its ways.
“Now, thanks to President Obama’s concessions,” he writes, “the regime in Cuba won’t have to change.”
Rubio argues that Obama based his policy shift on a lie, believing commerce and access to money will bring about political freedom for Cubans. Even though Cuba currently has access to trade, money and goods through other nations, Cuban people are not yet free.
Economic engagement with the U.S. will result in a strengthen grip by the Castro regime.
Rubio does point out he is “overjoyed” for the release of Alan Gross after five years of captivity. But Obama’s policy changes prove that someone can take an American hostage, and win policy concessions from the U.S. if they hold him long enough.
“This precedent places a new price on the head of every American,” he writes, “and it gives rogue leaders around the world more clear-cut evidence of this president’s naïveté and his willingness to abandon fundamental principles in a desperate attempt to burnish his legacy.”
Rubio acknowledges that reasonable people can disagree over American foreign policy on Cuba and the embargo. However, he adds, no serious person can support the manner Obama “unilaterally granted concessions to the regime in Havana.”
In the upcoming weeks and months, Rubio pledges to work with Republicans and Democrats and “do everything in my power” to keep the administration’s “dangerous policies” from going forward.
“By conceding to the oppressors in the Castro regime,” he concludes, “this president and his administration have let the Cuban people down; further weakened America’s standing in the world and endangered Americans.”
