{"id":235026,"date":"2026-04-17T00:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/235026\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T00:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:59:07","slug":"top-u-s-officials-pressed-on-cuba-policy-as-new-poll-reveals-hardline-views-in-south-florida-nbc-6-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/235026\/","title":{"rendered":"Top U.S. officials pressed on Cuba policy as new poll reveals hardline views in South Florida \u2013 NBC 6 South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

High-ranking U.S. State Department officials faced tough questions on Capitol Hill over policy toward Cuba, including whether any negotiations are underway between Washington and Havana.<\/p>\n

During a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Cuba took center stage as lawmakers from both parties weighed in on the island\u2019s political and economic crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe communist regime in Cuba is on life support,\u201d said Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican from South Florida.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Texas Democrat Joaqu\u00edn Castro pointed in part to U.S. policy as a contributing factor to the current situation, while also urging democratic reforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the Cuban government holds free and fair elections and they must engage in economic reforms,\u201d Castro said.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers pressed Michael Kozak, a senior State Department official and former diplomat in Cuba, about whether the U.S. is currently negotiating with Cuban leaders.<\/p>\n

Kozak declined to provide details.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to get anywhere with talks of this kind, you don\u2019t do it in public,\u201d he said, suggesting that any potential discussions would remain confidential.<\/p>\n

Poll shows strong support for intervention<\/p>\n

As questions swirl in Washington, a newly released poll by the Miami Herald<\/a> highlights strong opinions among Cubans and Cuban Americans in South Florida.<\/p>\n

According to the survey:<\/p>\n

79% support U.S. military intervention in Cuba\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nearly 70% believe negotiations with the Cuban government would not lead to meaningful change short of regime transition\u00a0<\/p>\n

The findings point to a hardline stance among many in the community, particularly amid ongoing economic hardship and political repression on the island.<\/p>\n

At Florida International University, where leaders broke ground on the new Casa Cuba cultural and academic center, experts weighed in on the poll\u2019s significance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe poll just published by the Herald proves something that we have been saying for over a month now \u2014 that there is a Miami consensus on how a transition should take place in Cuba,\u201d said Sebastian Arcos, interim director of Cuban Studies at FIU.<\/p>\n

Arcos noted that more recent Cuban arrivals to the U.S. tend to favor a transition that begins with sweeping political changes, including removing members of the Castro family from power.<\/p>\n

Cuban American artist Willy Chirino also shared his perspective, expressing conditional support for intervention if diplomatic solutions fail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather have an intervention unless there is another way that we could do it diplomatically,\u201d Chirino said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"High-ranking U.S. State Department officials faced tough questions on Capitol Hill over policy toward Cuba, including whether any…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1016,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-235026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-cuba","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235026","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=235026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}