U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the Cuban people directly in a video message recorded in Spanish, criticizing the country's elite for corruption and offering a "new path," including a proposed influx of $100 million worth of food and medicine, UNN reports, citing CBS News.
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Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who left for Florida two years before Fidel Castro came to power, targeted Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., or GAESA, a politically connected Cuban business entity that Rubio says has $18 billion in assets and controls 70% of the economy.
"The reason you are forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to an oil 'blockade' by the U.S. As you know better than anyone, you have suffered from blackouts for years," Rubio said. "The real reason you have no electricity, fuel, or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but none of it was used to help the people."
Rubio stated that the proposal to provide $100 million in humanitarian aid, which the U.S. has offered before, must be distributed to the Cuban people through the Catholic Church or other charitable organizations to avoid it being "stolen by GAESA to be sold in one of its stores."
"President Trump is offering a new relationship between the U.S. and Cuba," Rubio said in the video. "But it must be directly with you, the Cuban people, and not with GAESA."
Rubio also spoke about overcoming communism in the country, which has prevailed for 67 years.
"Today in Cuba, only those close to or part of the GAESA elite can have a profitable business," Rubio told the Cuban people. "But President Trump is offering a new path between the U.S. and a new Cuba."
"A new Cuba where you, the ordinary Cuban, and not just GAESA, can own a gas station, a clothing store, or a restaurant," he added.
The message comes after a U.S. grand jury in Florida indicted former President Raúl Castro and five others, according to court documents.
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The case against Castro, the brother of longtime dictator Fidel Castro, is related to Cuba's 1996 shootdown of two small planes operated by the humanitarian organization "Brothers to the Rescue," U.S. officials told CBS News earlier this month.
Raúl Castro officially stepped down as leader of the Communist Party of Cuba in 2021, but he is still considered one of the most influential figures in the country. Miguel Díaz-Canel is the current President of Cuba and leader of the Communist Party.
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