Cuban-born rep to lobby Trump admin for major actions to ‘starve’ Havana regime: ‘The time is now’

EXCLUSIVE: The only Cuban-born member of Congress is calling on the Trump administration to “starve the regime” in Havana by cutting off some of its last economic lifelines connected to the U.S.

Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., who recently returned to the island for the first time in 64 years as part of a congressional delegation to Guantanamo Bay, said that despite the decadeslong economic embargo and travel restrictions, there are still many ways Americans can incidentally aid the regime.

On Thursday, Gimenez will write to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, requesting the “cessation of all travel” to and from the communist island, as well as a ban on remittances from U.S. citizens to relatives or friends there—except for specific funds approved by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Gimenez told Fox News Digital that dictator Miguel Diaz-Canel’s government ends up with a substantive cut of remittances, and any way to further turn the economic screws to the regime is something the U.S. government should look into.

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“The regime in Cuba is a listed state sponsor of terrorism, harbors criminal fugitives of American justice, and prevents a clear threat to the safety of the United States and our citizens,” Gimenez will write to Bessent.

“As you know, this issue is one of great importance to the Cuban-American community and to millions of Americans who hold freedom, democracy, and human rights as our guiding principles.”

He praised President Donald Trump for reversing the Obama-era “disastrous appeasement” policies that allowed some daylight between Havana and Washington.

Former President Barack Obama also notably visited with then-dictator Raul Castro, resulting in the famous photo of Castro awkwardly holding up Obama’s arm and smiling during a public appearance.

“We applaud and welcome the administration’s most recent policies to ban vessels arriving from communist Cuba at U.S. ports, but more must be done. I urge you, Mr. Secretary, to take swift and decisive action in halting all travel to and from Communist Cuba and eliminating the flow of remittances to the island,” Gimenez will tell Bessent.

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“The murderous dictatorship in Cuba is on life support. The regime cannot even keep the lights on, and America must stand with the Cuban people to topple this pathetic gang once and for all…. The time is now.”

“There’s plenty of travel happening between Cuba and the United States,” Gimenez said when asked how strong the current restrictions are.

“All you’ve got to do is go to MIA and you’ll see all kinds of flights from the United States to Cuba and back — that needs to stop.”

A partial travel ban is not enough, as the regime will always find loopholes to exploit, he said – and that if there were to be exceptions to what he is asking, Rubio would be the right official to determine their viability.

He said that large amounts of money in the form of remittances flow particularly out of Miami-Dade to Cuba every year.

“So these are efforts to basically starve the regime. A lot of times when flights are going from Miami to Cuba, a lot of those people are taking goods and products, et cetera,” he said. “The regime can’t even provide electricity to their own people. It needs to fail on its own weight; America can’t provide any more oxygen to that regime.”

Gimenez added there may be some short-term pain in Miami and elsewhere, but that there is the “long-term gain” of potentially accelerating the collapse of the Castro/Diaz-Canel government, which has been otherwise cut off from U.S. trade since 1959.

When asked why Cuba appears to be treated differently than other official state sponsors of terror like Iran and Afghanistan, Gimenez said the 90-mile proximity to the U.S. and the large numbers of Cuban refugee families living in Florida and beyond do create a different dynamic.

“Many family members in Miami and in the United States try to help their [Cuba-resident] family and friends as much as possible, and they want to visit every once in a while.”

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“But I’ve never gone – [until] a month ago in Guantanamo. I’ve never gone back to visit any family. I’ve never sent one penny to Cuba for anything during my time in the United States; over 60 years.”

“There are different circumstances for different people, but now it’s time to say enough.”