![\"Cubans](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2233989284.jpg\" "\\"Cubans")
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Cubans in Miami share their opinions on the negotiations between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ra\u00fal Castro\u2019s grandson, and discuss ideas for a transition process on the island. In the photo, visitors tour the Little Havana neighborhood on August 29, 2025 in Miami, Florida.<\/p>\n
GIORGIO VIERA<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Decades have passed since the first wave of Cuban exiles fled communism for South Florida, but as negotiations between the Trump administration and Cuba over possible changes on the island garner headlines, the yearning in Miami to see a free Cuba remains as strong as ever.<\/p>\n
Ebelio left Havana in 1980, never imagining the life he would build from scratch in Hialeah \u2014 with a wife and six children, four of whom became doctors. Now, 46 years later, he says he hopes that if conditions change and Cuba\u2019s economy improves, he can return to the island.<\/p>\n
At age 67, one particular reason drives that desire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to go back and die in Havana,\u201d Ebelio said. \u201cI long to feel the warm welcome of my people. I want to be reunited with my sister and my cousins, and I want to walk the streets of Havana again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ebelio, who asked to be identified only by his first name, said he left behind his parents\u2019 house in Havana, where his only sister still lives. In his four decades living in the United States, he said he has often felt he doesn\u2019t truly belong in the country \u2014 even while living in Hialeah, the most Cuban city in the U.S. \u2014 though he acknowledges the opportunities it has given him to raise a family and build a decent life.<\/p>\n
Since the triumph of the Castro revolution in 1959, Cubans have left the island in waves: some legally, others risking their lives on boats and rafts, or attempting to cross borders through Central America. Many recent arrivals, especially in the last few decades, often have family on the island.<\/p>\n
How Cuban Americans in South Florida view the ongoing Trump negotiations<\/a> depends on many factors, including how long they have lived in the U.S. and whether they still have family in Cuba.<\/p>\n Two weeks?<\/p>\n Reactions among Cuban Americans in South Florida to the possibility of major changes in Cuba \u2014 on Friday, President Donald Trump suggested it could happen in as little as two weeks<\/a> \u2014 range from cautious optimism to a readiness to take an active role in transforming the island.<\/p>\n Many Cubans interviewed by the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald in the past week imagine contributing to rebuilding Cuba and bringing the expertise they acquired living abroad, many since their teens. Others want to return to settle on the island when they believe the right conditions exist \u2014 conditions that differ for each person depending on their personal history and immigration status.<\/p>\n Social media has fostered a closer relationship between island Cubans and those living abroad, resulting in a greater understanding of the population\u2019s hardships, which include daily blackouts lasting 20 hours or more, a public health crisis<\/a> and malnutrition that is affecting children and the elderly most severely.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s a change, I\u2019ll go back as a volunteer,\u201d said Sisi Colomina, 59, a university graduate who works for a catering services company. \u201cIf I sacrifice here and put in my effort, how could I not do it there, where more hands are needed? I want to be part of that change.\u201d<\/p>\n Colomina, a U.S. citizen who has been living in Miami for eight years, said she stays in frequent contact with Cuba because her 80-year-old mother lives there.<\/p>\n She\u2019s well aware of the economic crisis gripping the island, where piles of garbage rot openly on streets,<\/a> surgeries are on hold and the lack of fuel has forced people to go back 19th century conditions and cook their food with firewood.<\/p>\n \u201cMost Cubans are like patients in intensive care. They require all kinds of assistance, including psychological help, because no one can be well after so long in a survival situation,\u201d Colomina said.<\/p>\n The reason many Cuban Americans are hopeful change may come to Cuba after so many decades is the attention the island is getting from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n After the U.S. military snatched Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro from Caracas earlier this year, the administration turned its attention to Cuba. In short order the U.S. ended vital oil shipments from Venezuela to the island, then successfully threatened Mexico with tariffs, which ended Mexican shipments to Cuba as well.<\/p>\n Cuba\u2019s economy, already in the midst of an existential crisis, went into a tailspin. Trump administration officials have used the opportunity to open negotiations, honing in on the grandson of Raul Castro<\/a>, whom they see as perhaps having enough clout to get Havana to enact market reforms in exchange for the easing of U.S. sanctions.<\/p>\n Secretary of State Marco Rubio, himself a Cuban American from West Miami, has been leading those efforts.<\/p>\n After State Department officials met with Castro\u2019s grandson on the sidelines of the Caribbean leaders\u2019 annual CARICOM conference in Saint Kitts and Nevis last week, Rubio said the U.S. understands changes may need to be gradual.<\/p>\n \u201cCuba needs to change,\u201d Rubio told the Caribbean leaders. \u201cAnd it doesn\u2019t have to change everything at once. It doesn\u2019t have to change overnight. We\u2019re all mature and realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n From skepticism to confidence<\/p>\n For decades, many Cuban exiles viewed any attempt at rapprochement between the United States and Cuba with deep suspicion. In the past, those engaging in talks with the Cuban government \u2014 even to secure the release of political prisoners \u2014 were often branded \u201cdialogueros,\u201d a label carrying a strong pejorative meaning within the exile community. Frustration has long lingered among exiles over what they see as a Cuban government strategy of seeking concessions without making meaningful commitments \u2014 a dynamic that many believe undermined the Obama-era opening that restored diplomatic relations between the two countries. Nonetheless, the current talks with representatives of the Cuban government has resonated differently, in good part because the chief negotiator for the United States is Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who grew up in Miami and who enjoys broad credibility in the exile community.<\/p>\n Reflecting a hope for a careful transition, Cuban American businessman Yurek V\u00e1zquez, who lives in Miami, supports a process modeled after Venezuela\u2019s.<\/p>\n After Maduro\u2019s capture, his vice president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, was named interim president.<\/a> Trump has praised her leadership in opening the country\u2019s oil industry to the United States. Venezuela has also taken steps to release political prisoners and dissidents from prison, and on Friday both countries announced they are reestablishing diplomatic relations.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI have tremendous confidence in how Trump and Marco Rubio are handling these negotiations,\u201d V\u00e1zquez said.<\/p>\n V\u00e1zquez, 49, who came to the United States at age 14 in 1991, added that he now \u201cthinks like an American\u201d and sees military intervention in Cuba \u2014 once viewed by many exiles as the only way to rid the island of its communist regime \u2014 only as a last resort.<\/p>\n V\u00e1zquez said \u201cpain\u201d prevents many exiles from seeing the need to negotiate with the current socialist government: \u201cWe have to rethink the strategy. Do we want revenge or do we want change?\u201d<\/p>\n Some Cuban Americans have little hope that, even with negotiations with the U.S., freedom and democracy will return to Cuba. Nevertheless, some say they would return if things change enough.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve never lived in democracy or freedom, but if the negotiations bring economic improvements that allow us to go to the supermarket, find food and buy it with our own money, that would be enough for me to return,\u201d said Jacqueline Ventura, 47, who has been in the United States for five years and is a permanent resident.<\/p>\n Originally from the western province of Matanzas, Ventura is not satisfied with her life in Miami.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not happy here. My husband is still there, and I can\u2019t bring him,\u201d she said, noting that her husband\u2019s effort to join her in the U.S. is on hold because of Trump administration changes that have drastically restricted immigration from Cuba. \u201cMy family is there. I\u2019m saving to buy a bigger house so we can be reunited.\u201d<\/p>\n Ventura, who obtained her green card under the Biden administration after entering the country through the U.S.-Mexico border, says she feels she has no life in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cI work 24 hours a day, seven days a week as an elder caregiver, earning $5 an hour, and I have nothing. I don\u2019t feel like I belong here. The system doesn\u2019t want us,\u201d she said. \u201cIf Cuba ever saw economic improvements like Venezuela\u2019s, I would leave in the blink of an eye.\u201d<\/p>\n Ventura added that her decision to return to Cuba would not be about democracy or freedom. \u201cCubans don\u2019t know what that is,\u201d she said. \u201cI just want food in Cuban supermarkets, but today that\u2019s impossible. If we don\u2019t send money from abroad and food to our relatives, they barely survive.\u201d<\/p>\n Ventura\u2019s story reflects the struggles many Cuban immigrants face building a stable life in the United States because of the high cost of living in South Florida and the constant pressure to support family back home.<\/p>\n Amid the broader debate over Cuba\u2019s future and how international events \u2014 from U.S. talks with Havana to regional conflicts in the Middle East \u2014 are shaping opinions in the exile community, not everyone is optimistic about the possibility of change.<\/p>\n Rosa, another woman from Matanzas who arrived in Homestead two and a half years ago and asked to be identified only by her first name due to concerns for her family in Cuba, expressed skepticism about the prospects for meaningful change in Cuba. Although she once hoped change might come, recent U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and the unfolding global tensions have reinforced her doubts.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though there\u2019s a lot of talk about negotiations between the United States and Cuba, the blackouts continue, needs on the island persist, people keep suffering and nothing improves; nothing really changes,\u201d she said. Rosa, a 48-year-old former economist in Cuba, works in a kitchen in Hollywood and supports her siblings in Cuba.<\/p>\n She would be willing to return to Cuba if it had a prosperous economy, she said. But for now, her priority is keeping her loved ones safe, sending them food, medicine and money to buy whatever is still available in Matanzas.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people have been suffering for a long time, always, but what is happening now with diseases, lack of food and the absence of gasoline is worse than ever,\u201d she said. \u201cCuba is unlivable. Sometimes I go days without speaking to my family, the power goes out constantly and there\u2019s no way to communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n Her brothers, she added, are \u201cemaciated\u201d despite the money and food she sends them nearly every month.<\/p>\n Getting rid of the military<\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 Azze, a Hialeah resident who emigrated from Cuba in 1971 at age seven, maintains very strong ties with his relatives on the island. Azze expects changes in Cuba but views the island\u2019s future cautiously.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have to get rid of all the top generals,\u201d Azze said, expressing his conviction that removing or capturing Cuba\u2019s appointed president, Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel, whom he described as \u201cjust a puppet,\u201d would not by itself change the fundamental structure of control in Cuba.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople will see immediate changes if they get rid of the military, because they\u2019ll have electricity and food,\u201d he said. \u201cBut rebuilding infrastructure\u2026 that will take 20 years to return to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n Azze, 62, used to visit Cuba almost every month until he stopped in December, mainly due to fears over the spread of the diseases on the island, as well as lack of transportation. His relatives \u2014 college graduates living in the eastern city of Holgu\u00edn \u2014 survive on the $100 a month he and his family send them.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople would be happy with 10 hours of electricity a day, they\u2019d be happy with rice and beans \u2014 but they don\u2019t even have that,\u201d Azze said.<\/p>\n The non-negotiables<\/p>\n When it comes to the terms of a transition on the island, many Cuban Americans are adamant about the kinds of compromises that can\u2019t be made.<\/p>\n Ileana P\u00e9rez Drago, a 62-year-old architect, believes members of the Castro family, D\u00edaz-Canel and senior government official should have no role in a transition.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Castros cannot be in the picture. That is non-negotiable,\u201d said P\u00e9rez Drago, who left Cuba 31 years ago and has lived in Miami for eight years. \u201cI do agree that officials who can lead a transition, like diplomats not involved in repression, could be included.\u201d<\/p>\n She said the release of more than 1,200 political prisoners and anyone jailed for criticizing the government is another non-negotiable condition.<\/p>\n For P\u00e9rez Drago, change in Cuba cannot be just about economics. It must be political as well. She said the Communist Party must be dissolved and people should be allowed to form new political parties leading to free elections \u2014 something currently impossible under Cuba\u2019s one\u2011party system, in which no genuine opposition parties are permitted to exist.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has to be a clear agenda, with dates,\u201d she said, noting that in Venezuela no concrete timeline has been established for a transition to democracy, a situation she believes should not be repeated in Cuba. \u201cThat leaves huge uncertainty, and Cuba, after 67 years, cannot be in involved that nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n As an architect, she also recognizes the need for outside help to rebuild the island\u2019s badly deteriorated infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cA kind of Marshall Plan is needed,\u201d she says, referring to the U.S. effort to help rebuild Western Europe after World War II. \u201cBut any change will be huge; having food in the refrigerator will be a lot for Cubans.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018You can\u2019t trust communists\u2019<\/p>\n Tony Haber, who owns a liquor business, sees the potential for change with caution, emphasizing the importance of political safeguards alongside economic reforms.<\/p>\n Haber, 52, who arrived in the United States from Cuba as a teenager and lives in Miami, said it\u2019s important to push for the U.S. to push for political change.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t trust communists. Their strategy is to drag things out,\u201d he said, adding that any economic reforms should be paired with free elections monitored by the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s only an economic opening, the same people will remain in power and get richer with U.S. money,\u201d he said. Cuba needs a supervised transition with legal safeguards for investors like him, he said, who could inject life into a revitalized economy.<\/p>\n Haber is co-owner of Ocean Cask Spirits, a liquor company that produces rums and tequilas.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea is that a company like mine could create jobs on the island,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While many exiles long to return, with plans to volunteer or help create jobs, all cling to hope for Cuba, tempered by decades of hardship.<\/p>\n As they wait for a miracle \u2014 whether a military intervention, a regime change, or negotiations toward a reformed economy \u2014 they continue supporting their families back home, who are enduring what they describe as the most unlivable conditions in the 67 years of the Revolution, a reality that has grown increasingly desperate over time.<\/p>\n \u201cCubans survive on what families abroad, like mine and many others, send them each month,\u201d said Ebelio, the man who longs to die in Havana. \u201cThey barely get by. If they don\u2019t receive food, they won\u2019t survive.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarah Moreno<\/a><\/p>\n el Nuevo Herald<\/p>\n Sarah Moreno cubre temas de negocios, entretenimiento y tendencias en el sur de la Florida. Se gradu\u00f3 de la Universidad de La Habana y de Florida International University. @SarahMoreno1585\n <\/p>\n![\"Boxes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MIA_101BusinessCuba13NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_101BusinessCuba13NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
Boxes with prices according to sizes are available for exiles to send aid to relatives in Cuba at a CubaMax Travel office in Hialeah on Feb. 13, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com Gradual changes<\/p>\n![\"Cuban](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1005575762.jpg\" "\\"GettyImages-1005575762.jpg\\"")
Cuban former president and first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, Raul Castro (R), escorted by his grandson and bodyguard Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, is pictured during the celebrations of the Moncada Barracks assault’s 65th anniversary, in Santiago de Cuba on July 26, 2018. Rodriguez Castro has held talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. YAMIL LAGE AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n![\"U.S.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2263009120.jpg\" "\\"GettyImages-2263009120.jpg\\"")
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters in a departure lounge before returning to Washington following meetings with Caribbean Community leaders in Saint Kitts and Nevis on Feb. 25, 2026. JONATHAN ERNST POOL\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n
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