With Biden’s Cuba Thaw 2.0 cooking in the White House kitchen, Republicans are trying once again to keep the terror sponsoring communist Castro regime on the State Sponsors of Terror list.
In March 2021, Florida’s two U.S. senators–Republicans Marco Rubio and Rick Scott–teamed up with U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., on the “Fighting Oppression until the Reign of Castro Ends (FORCE) Act” to keep Cuba on the State Sponsor of Terrorism List.
Salazar brought the bill back last week and noted that under her proposal, Cuba would stay on the State Sponsor of Terrorism List until it releases political prisoners, allows human rights organizations to investigate its prison and move towards a more democratic government.
“The totalitarian communist regime in Cuba is an ever-present national security threat to the United States,” said Salazar. “Aside from stealing the hopes and dreams of three generations of Cubans, the Castro regime continues to subsidize and provide financial and military support to bad actors across Latin America. The FORCE Act ensures that no Secretary of State or President can remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism until they meet the minimal requirements of a functional and free society. This legislation is not only important to the Cuban exile community of District 27, but to the thousands of my constituents who also come from countries directly subsidized by Havana.”
More than 20 House Republicans, including U.S. Reps. Kat Cammack, Mario Diaz-Balart, Neal Dunn, Scott Franklin, Carlos Giménez, John Rutherford, Greg Steube and Michael Waltz are co-sponsoring the proposal.
The Castro dictatorship has never stopped supporting terrorist organizations such as Colombia’s narco-terrorists FARC and ELN as well as Spain’s ETA and Iran’s terrorist regime. The Cuban government even harbors fugitive terrorists and gives them safe harbor where they plan terror attacks.
Nevertheless, despite the overwhelming evidence Cuba remains a state sponsor of terror, the Biden administration is likely to repeat the same mistakes made by Obama and remove the Castro dictatorship from the list. This concession will do nothing good for America, hurt our national security, and provide yet another lifeline to the communists in Havana.
It’s a breathtakingly terrible idea. In fact, it’s so terrible, there’s a good chance of Biden moving forward with it.
This is all well and good, but the bottom line is that there is no serious intent to help Cuba become free, not even by Republicans, let alone Dems–who not only don’t care but typically make things worse.