A Cuban night is no longer silent. It is filled with the metallic rhythm of thousands of families banging spoons against empty pots in the darkness. This is the sound of a funeral for a failed ideology. The brutal communist regime imposed on Cuba by the Castro family is collapsing in real time. The economy is in free fall, the population is starving and the dictatorship is running out of money and fuel.
After more than sixty years of oppression, the corrupt regime is weaker today than it has ever been in my lifetime. I know that personally. I lived under it. I fled from it. Today, I am the only Cuban-born member of the United States Congress.
This moment calls for clarity and resolve from the United States. We are closer than ever to ending the tyranny imposed by the Castro family and their loyal enforcers in Havana, but only if we maintain a robust strategy. My message to the world, to those forced to leave their homelands, and to the regime is simple. There will be no major investments, no bailouts and no economic lifelines unless there are dramatic political changes on the island.
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Any discussion with the bankrupt dictatorship in Havana must start from a position of strength. Economic relief should only follow real change. The regime must release all political prisoners, restore human rights, and dismantle the totalitarian structures of the Castro dictatorship, as required by U.S. law enshrined in the LIBERTAD Act of 1996, which outlines the conditions for lifting the economic embargo on the regime.
Currently, the regime has about $46 billion in foreign debt, while its main sources of income have collapsed. Remittances have fallen by almost 70%. Income from tourism has fallen by more than 68%. Income from exporting medical professionals has fallen by more than 53%. At the same time, the island’s crumbling power grid has collapsed, leaving millions of Cubans in rolling blackouts.
These numbers reveal the truth about the economic model imposed by the Castros. The crisis is not the result of outside pressure. It is the result of decades of failed ideology, corruption, central planning and economic mismanagement. For more than 67 years, the regime has drained the country’s infrastructure while enriching its proxies.
Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the United States has restored a clear policy toward authoritarian regimes. Dictatorships that abuse their people will not be rewarded with economic lifelines.
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We’ve seen this approach deliver results elsewhere. In Venezuela, sustained pressure has exposed the fragility of Maduro’s dictatorship and forced negotiations that it has long resisted. In Iran, sanctions and diplomatic pressure limited the regime’s ability to finance destabilizing activities abroad. Authoritarian regimes dependent on outside resources become vulnerable when the democratic world acts with unity and strength.
The dictatorship in Havana is no exception. The Castro regime needs the United States much more than the United States needs the regime. Havana depends on foreign currency, imported food, fuel and international legitimacy. President Trump’s decisive action gives the United States crucial influence on changes in Cuba.
Every night, thousands of Cubans take to the streets in cities across the island. In the town of Moron on the eastern side of the island, the townspeople even set fire to the headquarters of the Communist Party during a massive protest.
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The dictatorship has responded in the only way it knows how: repression. More than 1,400 political prisoners remain behind bars, patriots whose only crime was demanding freedom. President Donald Trump has an opportunity to help change the course of history. If the regime again resorts to massacring its own people, as it has done in the past, the United States must make it clear that such brutality will not be tolerated.
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I urge President Trump to send a clear and unmistakable warning to the regime in Havana about the consequences it will face if it continues to oppress the Cuban people.
Yet the courage of the Cuban people continues to shine through the darkness. Across the island, the call of Patria y Vida grows louder every day.
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To my brothers and sisters on the island. We hear your pots and pans echoing through the night. We see your courage in the darkness. Your voices sound through the Straits of Florida and reach the hearts of millions of people who still dream of a free Cuba. Every protest and every chant for Libertad brings the island closer to the freedom its people deserve.
The night imposed by the Castros has lasted far too long. But the Cuban people have never stopped believing in the sunrise.
