The Cuban totalitarian dictatorship constitutes a vital threat to the national security of the United States – and to its citizens. Cubans fighting for freedom inside and outside the island are America’s first line of defense.
The Cuban communist regime is an existing threat to our national security. It persecutes and attacks Cubans who fight for freedom on the island and around the world, including in America. It has established close ties to America’s most powerful enemies; reports indicate that rogue states such as Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China benefit handsomely from their ties to a country with an active U.S. military base on it, 90 miles from U.S. shores.
Under the administration of former President Joe Biden, Cuba was almost entirely ignored, never mind identified as a foreign policy priority. The Biden administration showed near-total disregard to Latin America in its entirety, allowing America’s rivals, most prominently China, to leverage that neglect against America. In Cuba, this meant growing Chinese espionage activity and loud support for causes such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the jihadist terror organization Hamas.
Biden’s approach was a dramatic departure from President Donald Trump’s first term – and, hopefully, from his second, in which he has already made clear that Latin America is a foreign policy priority and America’s enemies would find little to celebrate in the White House. President Trump has accompanied the Cuban-American community in its unswerving commitment to Cuban freedom. In order to free Cuba, it is essential that the Cuban Resistance not be abandoned.
From nuclear missiles aimed at the United States to support for terrorist groups based in the United States; from directed energy attacks against U.S. diplomats based in Havana to massive Medicare fraud within the United States; from allowing Chinese espionage bases throughout its territory to monitor sensitive communications in the United States to involvement in drug trafficking to poison our population, Cuba poses a high-level threat. Cuba has forced its people to serve as proxies in Russia’s wars throughout the world and aided the spread of Chinese influence in the Western Hemisphere. Few regimes in history have been as consistent a threat to the national security of the United States as the Cuban dictatorship has.
The Cuban people never elected this regime. For 66 years, they have consistently resisted it. Thousands of farmers took up arms against the Castro totalitarian regime throughout the island’s mountains. They and the 2506 Brigade of exiles that landed at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961 were left abandoned by a Democrat administration in the White House. U.S. neutrality laws were applied by successive U.S. administrations to stem exile support for the anti-communist insurgency inside Cuba. However, without arms, the Cuban people have continued to struggle for their freedom. At great risk, dissident groups in Cuba have organized to disseminate uncensored news in Cuba, to aid political prisoners and victims of repression, to protest openly against the regime. At every step of the way, they have consistent support from the Cuban-American community in the United States.
The dangerous dictatorship in Havana has not lasted for 66 years because of the lack of the will to struggle of the Cuban people. In the last few years alone, despite being unarmed, isolated, and persecuted, the resistance of the Cuban people has consistently placed the Castro regime in jeopardy. In doing so, they have bravely given up their lives, suffered mental and bodily harm, and undergone unrelenting persecution and imprisonment.
Freedom struggles throughout history have needed the solidarity of other governments to prevail against entrenched tyrannies. From French and Spanish – and Cuban – support for the continental army in the American Revolution to U.S. support for Solidarity in Poland in its national struggle against Soviet domination, foreign assistance has been an indispensable asset in attaining liberation.
Totalitarian regimes can be overthrown, but it requires a consistent strategy and an ensemble of diverse tools and methods. In the case of Cuba, the combination of the strategic policies and sanctions placed by the first Trump administration; the national uprising of the Cuban people on July 11, 2021; the mass protests that have continued since then; and the constant work of the Cuban resistance constitutes the greatest challenge that the regime has ever faced.
Decisive U.S. action is of great importance. To this day, the Castro regime has weaponized immigration to pressure the United States. This must not be allowed to continue. Shutting off the Castro dictatorship’s safety valve must be accompanied by steadfast support for the Cuban resistance.
As an American, I am proud to be part of a movement born in the Cuban-American community, the Cuban Democratic Directorate (Directorio), that has effectively supported key initiatives from within Cuba with logistics, information, and organizational support, and has substantially advanced efforts to cut off European Union funding for the regime and carried out actions to have the Castro dictatorship tried internationally for its crimes against humanity.
To stop our efforts, the Castro regime has carried out a campaign of transnational repression. Directorio members have been murdered, physically attacked, threatened, stalked, defamed, and even indicted by the Castro regime on preposterous charges of terrorism (for their “written and verbal expressions,” reads the regime’s sentence), seeking their arrest and extradition from the U.S. and other countries.
All of this is being faced by U.S. citizens today on U.S. soil.
It is time to bring this regime to an end. Cuban freedom fighters have been abandoned on far too many occasions in the past. An America First foreign policy must include decisive support for Cuba’s liberation.
Dr. Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat is a writer, educator, journalist, and co-founder and spokesman for the Cuban Democratic Directorate (Directorio). Directorio was part of the Patriotic Committee organizing October 2020’s Anti-Communist Caravan in Miami.
