WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States wants \u201csomething good for the Cuban people\u201d and warned that instability in Cuba poses a national security risk because the island is \u201c90 miles from our shores.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuban activist and Founder of Cuba Decide, Rosa Mar\u00eda Pay\u00e1, 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\u2019s leadership. (TNND)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Rubio made the comments during a cabinet meeting where he discussed the future of Cuba.<\/p>\n
Cuban activist and Founder of Cuba Decide, Rosa Mar\u00eda Pay\u00e1, 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\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.S. is essential in, pressuring the criminals in power for them to have to submit to the will of the people and leave,\u201d Pay\u00e1 said. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pay\u00e1 also described her family\u2019s personal connection to Cuba\u2019s opposition movement, saying her father, an activist who headed the Christian liberation movement, was killed by the Cuban state in 2012.<\/p>\n
In the interview, Pay\u00e1 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\u2019s crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, they’re given people understand that, that the only way to overcome the crisis is to get rid of the dictatorship,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd they are supporting every action in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
The discussion came as the broadcast referenced what it described as \u201cthe indictment of Ra\u00fal Castro\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
The interview also included comments from Cuba\u2019s deputy foreign minister, who said, \u201cCuba 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pay\u00e1 rejected that characterization and said Cuba\u2019s government poses a threat to the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe given regime is a threat to the national security of the U.S.,\u201d she said. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about President Donald Trump\u2019s past statement that he would have \u201cthe honor of taking Cuba in some form,\u201d Pay\u00e1 said her focus is on Cuban sovereignty.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m in support of the Cuban people recovering their sovereignty, and that requires the solidarity and the actions of the U.S.,\u201d she said. \u201cWe see the U.S. government as the best ally that the Cuban people could hope for in a moment like this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States wants \u201csomething good for the Cuban…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-669245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}