{"id":176194,"date":"2026-03-03T11:06:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176194\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T11:06:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:06:51","slug":"hialeah-sees-cuban-regime-change-in-sight-it-all-depends-on-the-americans-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176194\/","title":{"rendered":"Hialeah sees Cuban regime change in sight: ‘It all depends on the Americans now’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fernando Valdes is perched on the windowsill of a laundromat on Donald J. Trump Avenue in Hialeah, whistling to a bird to lure it closer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have the birds used to it so I can feed them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Valdes arrived from Cuba in 1980 during the Mariel Boatlift, when 125,000 Cubans fled the communist nation to Florida by boat. Things in Cuba were bad then, he told WLRN. But from what he hears from his only remaining cousin on the island, things are worse now than they\u2019ve ever been.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all depends on the Americans now. Cubans \u2014 they aren\u2019t capable of pushing for change, they don\u2019t have the strength for it,\u201d said Valdes. \u201cIt has to be the Americans that do it. And in that, I have faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faith that the United States will for once and for all rid the island of communism runs high in Hialeah, a city of about 235,000 of which nearly 75%<\/a> has Cuban roots.<\/p>\n

\"Fransisco<\/p>\n

Fernando Valdes said the future of Cuba is ‘up to the Americans’ now. Valdes arrived to the US during the Mariel Boatlift in 1980.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump exerted pressure on Cuba during his first term, reversing the trademark loosening of restrictions enacted by President Barack Obama. Then during Trump’s second term, in early January, the calculus shifted once again when the U.S. arrested Venezuela’s then-President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and pressured the remaining government of the key Cuba ally to cut what was its biggest supply of oil. <\/p>\n

President Trump has since then imposed an effective fuel blockade on Cuba, leaving hospitals and schools in darkness, along with paralyzing public transport in the country. Tankers suspected of attempting to bring oil to the island have been intercepted by military vessel<\/a>s<\/a> at sea. An attempted armed incursion of the island by Cubans and Cuban-Americans living in Florida last week ended with four killed by the Cuban Coast Guard<\/a> and six suspects facing on terrorism charges. <\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the U.S. has launched a war against Iran alongside Israel. President Trump has highlighted regime change<\/a> as a core objective of the ongoing armed action.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Cuba’s president pushes for ‘urgent’ changes to island’s economic and business model<\/a><\/p>\n

For many, the conditions are perfect for what the Cuban-American exile community has called for for 67 years: Regime change. The clear conduit for that change, as they see it: President Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are great now in the sense that we have the opportunity for a president to stay true to his word and liberate Cuba so that we Cubans can get our country back,\u201d said Manuel Moya, a Hialeah barber.<\/p>\n

Bryan Calvo, the 28-year old new Cuban-American mayor of Hialeah, said he supports the Trump administration\u2019s actions towards Cuba, but that he would like to see a more \u201caggressive\u201d stance, and even direct military action taken.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously what they did in Venezuela was militarily awesome. It was certainly a game changer in the region and the geopolitics of this region. Could we see something similar in Cuba? I think that they certainly have the capability to do so, and I think that would make a lot of Cubans and a lot of Cuban-Americans very happy if that was the action taken,\u201d said Calvo.<\/p>\n

Humanitarian crisis<\/p>\n

The efforts to maximize pressure on Cuba has deepened a humanitarian crisis that was well underway before the U.S. government cut off oil shipments. Even among Hialeah residents who want the Cuban government to fall, those policies are controversial.<\/p>\n

Two blocks away from City Hall, Rosario Prieto stopped by a CubaMax store in order to send much needed medicine to her daughter, grandson and son-in-law in Havana. Her son-in-law has lupus. The company has helped Cuban families send goods to loved ones on the island for years, but recently has announced that the fuel shortage on the island caused by the blockade has deeply impacted its logistical operations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Prieto, the U.S. fuel blockade means longer for needed medicine to reach her family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry to laugh, but they told me that they\u2019re going to have to send a tricycle to deliver the medicine in Havana,\u201d said Prieto. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aI understand that the U.S. is trying to get the government out, but everything they are doing affects the people. The people are the ones that suffer the consequences \u2014 the government will keep eating, drinking and living the good life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Palm<\/p>\n

Palm Avenue was re-named to President Donald J. Trump Avenue in 2023. Along the avenue, many business that ship goods to Cuba operate, as seen in a background sign. Yet even while the shops draw a steady stream of local customers, their very existence is controversial to many.<\/p>\n

The United Nations has repeatedly warned <\/a>that the humanitarian situation on the island is facing a downward spiral under increased U.S. pressure. Medical care for tens of thousands of cancer patients and pregnant women is at risk as the nation loses access to fuel imports, according to the UN. An estimated 85% of island residents rely on electricity-dependent pumps to get their drinking water. Without fuel, many of those taps run dry.<\/p>\n

UN Resident Coordinator for Cuba Francisco Pich\u00f3n told reporters last week that daily life is “becoming fragile,” and food security is rapidly “deteriorating.”<\/p>\n

Speaking about situations like those of Prieto, Mayor Calvo said that while allowing trade between the U.S. and Cuba to continue \u201cwould benefit that one individual,\u201d many more Cubans are hurt over the long run by trade of any kind being allowed to continue.<\/p>\n

Calvo told WLRN he does \u201cnot want to see any\u201d U.S. trade with Cuba in order to maximize the pressure on the government.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aThe ultimate goal is that not a single dollar from our community goes to support that dictatorship,\u201d said Calvo. \u201c\u200aBut it takes a combined effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aWe don’t know when [regime change] will happen, but I think we’ll see something big soon and it’s important for us as a community to be prepared.”<\/p>\n

Hialeah Mayor Brian Calvo<\/p>\n

The same day he was sworn into office on Jan. 12, Calvo signed an executive order creating a task force to keep tabs on what is happening in Cuba and to investigate companies that help arrange travel and shipment of goods to the island.<\/p>\n

The purpose is to find out if those companies are violating federal laws that tightly regulate what kind of business transactions can be done with Cuba, said Calvo. The city at first identified 290 businesses to investigate.<\/p>\n

Hialeah is following in the footsteps of similar efforts by the Miami-Dade Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez, who has notified 3,909 businesses across the county that they are now being scrutinized. Fernandez is being sued in federal court<\/a> by a charter flight company that was briefly and mistakenly shut down in late December. Fernandez publicly alleged that the company was engaged in \u201cillegal commerce with the Cuban Communist dictatorship,\u201d which the company likens to an accusation that is an \u201cexistential threat\u201d to the business. Fernandez is fighting the lawsuit in federal court and has vowed to shut down more businesses.<\/p>\n

\"Hialeah<\/p>\n

Hialeah Mayor Bryan Calvo, in an interview at city hall, says the days of the Cuban government are numbered and that the city is preparing for next steps.<\/p>\n

Whatever the future holds for Cuba, Mayor Calvo is certain that Hialeah will \u201cbe at the forefront\u201d of it. Tens of thousands of Cuban residents who arrived in the last few years could well return to the island if a rapid change of government takes place, he suggested. The same holds for the possibility of more Cubans arriving because of the worsening humanitarian crisis, he acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future president of Cuba could be living in Hialeah right now,\u201d said Calvo.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aWe don’t know when it will happen, but I think we’ll see something big soon, and it’s important for us as a community to be prepared because we could be seeing tens of thousands of people easily take to the streets in celebration,\u201d said the mayor.<\/p>\n

The city has already begun outlining plans with police and fire departments about how to handle such major outpouring, whatever it might be.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIt’s on its last breath,\u201d said Calvo, speaking of the Cuban government. \u201c\u200aThe last thing that we want is for this moment to sort of pass and there not be a change, because I don’t think we’ve ever been as close as we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Valdes is perched on the windowsill of a laundromat on Donald J. Trump Avenue in Hialeah, whistling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-176194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}