Five Years After the July 11 Demonstrations, Cubans Deserve A Better Future

Five years ago, thousands of Cubans took to the streets to demand a better future for themselves and their families, seeking change after decades of repression and economic incompetence by the Communist regime.  True to form, the regime responded with brutality, beating peaceful demonstrators in the streets and arresting thousands of everyday Cubans.  To this day, hundreds of Cubans remain unjustly detained for the simple sin of asking for basic rights, opportunities, and dignity.  We reiterate our call for the immediate release of these, and all, political prisoners in Cuba.

President Trump and I want a better future for Cuba and its long-suffering people.  After decades of repression and gross mismanagement, Cuba’s economy is in freefall, and its people continue to suffer blackouts, hunger, and deprivation.  The United States has always supported the Cuban people with humanitarian assistance and exports of food, medicine, and critical goods.  In this Administration, we have offered Cuba aid, assistance with reconstruction, and the promise of a new relationship between our two countries, if the regime will only agree to make political and economic reforms to allow the country a chance at prosperity.

Sadly, the regime and its corrupt elites continue to refuse any efforts at meaningful reform, instead continuing to prioritize perpetuating their own total control over the Cuban people, and their dogmatic adherence to their failed and morally bankrupt Marxist ideology.  While the people cry out for reform, Cuba’s Communist overlords continue to consolidate economic control, steal and squirrel away overseas what few resources remain, and blame others for their failures.  They continue to ally themselves with America’s enemies, presenting a serious national security threat to our nation by hosting hostile foreign military, intelligence, terror, and operations less than 100 miles from our homeland and supporting dangerous subversive and terror networks in the United States itself.

The United States will continue to use every tool at our disposal to both address the national security threats posed by the Cuban Communist regime, and to drive the economic and political reforms to give Cuba a better future.  Cuba’s leaders must simply choose to commit themselves to real reforms, peace and prosperity—before it is too late.