The son of Cuban exiles now runs American foreign policy, and on Cuban Independence Day, Marco Rubio delivered a gut-punch to the regime that drove his family from the island. No hedging or doublespeak — just the truth about who is really starving the Cuban people.
🇺🇸🇨🇺 pic.twitter.com/nwEePVJ1lX
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 20, 2026
Cuba is plagued by blackouts, shortages, and empty shelves. For decades, the Communist regime has blamed the United States. Rubio isn't buying it, and on Wednesday, he made sure the Cuban people heard exactly why.
"The real reason you don't have electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people."
The culprit is GAESA, Grupo de Administración Empresarial, a military-owned corporate empire built by Raúl Castro and his cronies. It controls hotels, banks, construction, retail stores, even the remittances Cuban-Americans send home to their families. Its revenues dwarf the Cuban government's budget threefold.
"Today, while you suffer, these businessmen have $18 billion dollars in assets and control 70 percent of Cuba's economy," Rubio said.
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Uniformed generals hide behind socialist slogans while looting everything the Cuban people produce.
"Today, Cuba is not controlled by any 'revolution.' Cuba is controlled by GAESA," Rubio said, calling it "a state within the state" that answers to no one.
Trump is offering $100 million in food and medicine, distributed directly through the Catholic Church and other trusted charitable organizations.
"Not stolen by GAESA to sell in one of their stores," Rubio said.
Rubio made clear this is bigger than a relief check. He wants Cubans to have what his own parents found when they left the island: the chance to build something, own something, and live without a general's hand in their pocket.
That means a "new Cuba" where ordinary citizens can own gas stations, open restaurants, run banks, build construction companies, launch television stations, and publish newspapers. A Cuba where you can criticize the government without disappearing into a prison cell. A Cuba where elections mean something.
"This is not impossible," Rubio said. "All of this exists in the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and even just 90 miles away, in Florida."
Ninety miles separate grinding Communist poverty from the freedom the Cuban exile community in Florida built with their own hands. Rubio knows it personally. His family lived it.
Trump is extending a real hand to the Cuban people. The only thing standing in the way are those who control the country: the regime, the generals, and GAESA. The same people who have been stealing from the Cuban people for sixty-seven years, while blaming Washington.
Rubio just made sure the world knows their names. And for the first time in a long time, the Cuban people know someone is listening.
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