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Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that the Trump administration has taken back control of the Western Hemisphere. Those were his words in congressional testimony today. He touted the January operation to remove Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela. That operation, of course, ousted a key ally of Cuba's communist government, which has long been a focus of Rubio, going back to his days as a senator from Florida. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: When they debated each other on CNN in the 2016 presidential race, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump did not see eye to eye on Cuba. Trump was talking about what kind of deal he could make, but Rubio got the applause.
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MARCO RUBIO: On the issue of a good deal, I know what the good deal is. I'll tell you what the good deal now is - it's already codified. Here's a good deal. Cuba has free elections. Cuba stops putting people in jail for speaking out.
KELEMEN: When he said it was codified, Rubio was referring to the Helms-Burton Act, which states that the U.S. embargo on Cuba can only be lifted once there are credible steps toward democracy. It's kind of gospel among some Miami Cubans, says Christopher Sabatini of Chatham House, a London-based think tank.
CHRISTOPHER SABATINI: Their model of change was an Eastern European-style collapse of communist regimes.
KELEMEN: But a collapse in Cuba could spark a new migration crisis at a time when the Trump administration has focused on deporting migrants. In Venezuela, the Trump administration toppled Maduro but basically left the state intact, opening up business deals for Americans. That kind of arrangement might appeal to President Trump in Cuba, says Sabatini, but it's not what the Helms-Burton law requires or what Rubio has called for.
SABATINI: So he's going to have to confront his own constituency and his own conscience, if you will, in a policy that Trump is dictating in which Trump will want a victory. But it's not the same absolute victory that Marco Rubio and many of his constituents have imagined, literally, for more than six decades now.
KELEMEN: Rubio's parents were born in Cuba but left before the revolution. Cuban history professor Lillian Guerra of the University of Florida has a similar background, but unlike Rubio, she spent time on the island.
LILLIAN GUERRA: He is very unaware of, you know, how - what life is like in Cuba. He's never been there. And I think that he needs to be cognizant of that. And I think that, in fact, there is much to be learned about his own history.
KELEMEN: She remembers watching the PBS program, "Finding Your Roots," which found that Rubio has some Spanish and Native American ancestry. The program also found that his third great-grandfather owned a tobacco farm in Cuba and slaves.
GUERRA: I mean, that was shocking - right? - to him. But it wasn't to anybody who's Cuban - on the island.
KELEMEN: She says Cubans on the island understand the history of exploitation, and she believes the U.S. has to take into account race and class issues as it pushes for change. But Guerra did praise Rubio for a recent message he recorded explaining to Cubans how corruption is to blame for much of the current humanitarian crisis.
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RUBIO: (Speaking Spanish).
KELEMEN: Raul Castro founded a company 30 years ago called GAESA, Rubio explained, saying that it's owned and operated by the armed forces and has revenues three times greater than the current government budget. He calls it a state within a state. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on leaders of GAESA, and the Department of Justice recently indicted Raul Castro, the 95-year-old former Cuban leader, on unrelated charges. Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Cuba needs systemic reforms.
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RUBIO: I really don't believe this system is capable of reform, unless new people take over or a new mindset takes hold.
KELEMEN: But the administration is talking to Cuban officials, including to Raul Castro's grandson. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the State Department. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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