WASHINGTON (TNND) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States wants “something good for the Cuban people” and warned that instability in Cuba poses a national security risk because the island is “90 miles from our shores.”
Cuban activist and Founder of Cuba Decide, Rosa María Payá, told The National News Desk the United States plays a central role in helping bring political change to the island by increasing pressure on Cuba’s leadership. (TNND)
Rubio made the comments during a cabinet meeting where he discussed the future of Cuba.
Cuban activist and Founder of Cuba Decide, Rosa María Payá, told The National News Desk the United States plays a central role in helping bring political change to the island by increasing pressure on Cuba’s leadership.
“The U.S. is essential in, pressuring the criminals in power for them to have to submit to the will of the people and leave,” Payá said. “And that’s the only option, for our nation right now, because the Cuban people are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe imposed by the Cuban dictatorship imposed by a failed, centralized socialist system imposed by a group in power that is corrupt, that is incompetent, that sits over billions of dollars in offshore accounts that they use for their trips and their luxury and, and and unfair repression, but not if any of that is being spent today.”
Payá also described her family’s personal connection to Cuba’s opposition movement, saying her father, an activist who headed the Christian liberation movement, was killed by the Cuban state in 2012.
In the interview, Payá said she remains in frequent contact with people in Cuba and argued that Cubans see removing the current government as the only path out of the country’s crisis.
“Look, they’re given people understand that, that the only way to overcome the crisis is to get rid of the dictatorship,” she said. “And they are supporting every action in that direction.”
The discussion came as the broadcast referenced what it described as “the indictment of Raúl Castro” as a form of pressure, and asked whether people on the island view such actions as symbolic or as steps that could contribute to regime change.
The interview also included comments from Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, who said, “Cuba is not an enemy of the United States. We don’t want to be any of the United States. In fact, we like to have a constructive and, if possible, friendly relationship with the United States.”
Payá rejected that characterization and said Cuba’s government poses a threat to the United States.
“The given regime is a threat to the national security of the U.S.,” she said. “The Cuban regime is the best ally of Putin. In this hemisphere. They transform the Cuban territory into a sanctuary for terrorists from the U.S. and the rest of the region. They give our national territory to China for them to have a spy base in our national territory.”
Asked about President Donald Trump’s past statement that he would have “the honor of taking Cuba in some form,” Payá said her focus is on Cuban sovereignty.
“I’m in support of the Cuban people recovering their sovereignty, and that requires the solidarity and the actions of the U.S.,” she said. “We see the U.S. government as the best ally that the Cuban people could hope for in a moment like this.”