U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the secretary of state designate, strongly suggested Tuesday that the United States will restore the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism shortly after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Rubio was definitive, declaring that Cuba is “without a question” a state sponsor of terrorism. “There is zero doubt in my mind that they meet all of the qualifications for being a state sponsor of terrorism,” he added.
On Monday, the outgoing Biden administration removed the designation from Cuba, part of a deal to free political prisoners held there.
Widely expected to be overwhelmingly confirmed as secretary of state at the beginning of the Trump presidency, Rubio said — more than once — at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that nothing implemented by the Biden administration on Cuba in the last 12 to 18 hours is binding on the incoming Trump administration.
“Nothing that was agreed to is irreversible or binding on the new administration. I think people know my feelings and people know the president’s feelings,” Rubio said, referring to the incoming president, who will be inaugurated on Monday.
He also was careful to defer to Trump as the decision-maker. “As I said, the president sets foreign policy,” and the secretary of state’s job “is to execute it.”
Most of the five-hour hearing was devoted to the most high-profile international issues: the threat posted to the U.S. by China, the war between Ukraine and Russia, the Israel-Hamas war and other issues related to the Middle East. Rubio has long been outspoken on what he sees as the significant threat posed by China.
After several hours devoted almost entirely to those topics, a handful of Democratic and Republican senators brought up issues that Rubio has been heavily involved in over the years, including Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, all of which are physically close to South Florida, a region that is home to many emigrants from those nations.
Haiti
Haiti, located just 700 miles from the U.S., has been in turmoil for years and much of the country is currently run by ruthless gangs.
Rubio described the situation there as “globally complex,” said “there is no easy answer” and added that, “I don’t think anyone can tell you they have a master plan for how you fix that overnight.”
Rubio said positive developments, and permanent order is “going to take a long time, and I say this with sadness in my heart. There have been good times and there have been bad times and worse times in Haiti, but sadly there’s not really been a golden era in Haiti’s history and your heart breaks for these people and for what they’ve gone through.”
The fundamental problem, he said, is “there is no legitimacy of authority,” he said, adding that some of the police there “have been extraordinarily brave. Despite being outgunned and outmanned, these guys and gals are stuck at their posts and fought back against armed gangs.”
He cited the presence of gang leader Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer known as “Barbecue.”
“You know, when you’re, when the most powerful person in any nation state is nicknamed ‘Barbecue,’ that is not a good thing, and this guy obviously is not named that for good reasons. He’s not a cook,” he said. “These are bad gang elements that are operating within Haiti.”
The turmoil in Haiti threatens to destabilize the Dominican Republic, the other nation on the island of Hispaniola. He also said the situation places “migratory pressure” on the U.S., The Bahamas, and other countries.
A plus: security forces from Kenya and El Salvador are in Haiti. He said it is essential to “establish some baseline security” — but “it’s not going to come from U.S. military intervention.”
Nicaragua
Rubio described the situation in Nicaragua as “very weird.”
Most recently, he said, the Central American country has “kicked out every nun in the country. They’ve gone to war with the Catholic Church, which was the last institution in the country capable of standing up to them.”
Rubio said Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was moving to amend “the fake constitution” so that his wife becomes co-president, creating a “family dynasty.” Anyone who’s attempted to run for president, he said, has been arrested.
“There’s no democracy. That’s been completely wiped out,” he said.
For the United States, he said the situation in Nicaragua creates a security threat because of increased “migratory pressure.” Also, he said the country is allowing people to fly there without visas — if they pay a fee — and then use it as a place to head to the U.S.
Venezuela
Rubio condemned the authoritarian regime of President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. His rule, and the economic turmoil there, has resulted in an exodus of 7 million to 9 million people from the country, he said.
His discussion of Venezuela policy was one of the few times Rubio specifically criticized the Biden administration by name. “They got played the way I knew they would get played. They entered into negotiations with Maduro. He agreed to have elections. The elections were completely fake,” Rubio said.
Rubio didn’t offer specifics, but said policy toward Venezuela “needs to be re-explored.” He said there is a Russian presence there, a “very strong Iranian presence,” and the country issues passports to Hezbollah operatives.
Panama
Trump recently refused to rule out the use of military force or economic pressure to take over the Panama Canal, which the U.S. turned over to the country in 1999.
Rubio said he wanted to “bifurcate” discussion of the Panamanian government, which he said has been “very friendly” toward the U.S., and the operation of the canal. He said Chinese companies control port facilities at both ends of the canal. “That could one day be used as a choke point to impede commerce in a moment of conflict.”
Cuba
Biden’s decision on Cuba, a week before he leaves office, was denounced by Florida political leaders in both parties.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, a longtime close Biden ally, said she “strongly disagree(d)” with his decision. U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Miami, responded to Biden’s decision by calling him a “pathetic coward” on social media.
Cuba fits the definition of state sponsor of terrorism for several reasons, Rubio said, citing:
- It long supported the FARC, the revolutionary organization that operated for decades in Colombia, including through narco-trafficking.
- Cuba is “openly friendly toward Hamas and Hezbollah.” Hamas is the Palestinian organization that launched the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel. Hezbollah is the Iranian-backed terror group. Cuba has “strong ties” to Iran.
- Cuba allows foreign adversaries, including China, to operate from the nation. “They are operating right off the coast of the United States, in our region,” Rubio said.
- “We know for a fact that there are fugitives from American justice, fugitives from American justice including cop killers and others who are actively hosted in Cuba and protected from the long arm of American justice by the Cuban regime.”
The Catholic Church supported the deal, which involved the release of prisoners, removal of Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list and easing some economic sanctions.
Rubio said the Cuban military owns and profits from “everything that makes money in Cuba,” reaping riches while at the same time the country has been gripped with electrical blackouts and economic problems that affect the citizenry.
The Cuban regime has survived for decades, but that won’t continue forever, Rubio said.
“Ultimately the reality of the moment of truth is arriving,” he said. “Cuba is literally collapsing both generationally in terms of all the young people leaving, but it’s also collapsing economically.”
Rubio, who would be the nation’s first Hispanic secretary of state, has a personal connection to Cuba policy. His parents emigrated from Cuba to the U.S., before the communist revolution that led to decades of dictatorship by Fidel Castro and that has continued after his death.
Early in the hearing, while Rubio was delivering his opening remarks, he was interrupted by loud protesters, who were removed from the hearing room. Later, he said his dream is for Cubans to join the majority of nations in the hemisphere that have political freedom.
“Think about what happened here today — the Cuban people have no idea what it’s like to have an authority figure or someone in charge of power like I am as a U.S. senator sitting here having to answer questions from his colleagues, and also having to have people in the back screaming and protesting against you — you can’t do that to a Cuban official. You can’t question their decisions,” he said.
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
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