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Cubans worried about Rubio’s candidacyPublished date: 14 November 00:13 Greenwich Mean Time

00:13 GMT 14 November

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Mexico, Central America and Cuba Correspondent

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If there is one name that the Cuban Government, and Cubans in general, would least want to be nominated as President-elect Trump’s Secretary of State, it is Marco Rubio.

As a Florida Senator, he was Havana’s bête noire; He was perhaps the leading voice opposing relations with Cuba in the final years of the Obama Administration, which sought to normalize relations after six decades of hostilities.

After President Trump won in 2016, Rubio advocated reversing that policy by making it harder for Americans to visit the island and escalating the U.S. economic embargo to its harshest possible expression under the doctrine of maintaining “maximum pressure” on the communist government. island.

Cuba, of course, has a unique personality for Rubio; While his parents immigrated to the United States before the Cuban Revolution came to power in 1959, his grandfather fled a few years later and was forced into exile as Fidel Castro took Cuba further into arms. Soviet Union. His grandfather had a great influence on young Marco’s political awareness.

Despite his popularity in Miami, many Cubans living on the island shudder to think what Rubio would do if confirmed as secretary of state. There are still a few places where sanctions could be increased. Direct commercial flights to Cuba could be banned and diplomatic relations severed and the U.S. Embassy in Havana closed.

One thing is clear: Rubio is unlikely to extend any lifeline to Cuba at a time when the island is experiencing widespread power outages and chronic shortages; Instead, it is likely to attempt to further stifle tourism, the mainstay of its faltering economy.

For Cuba’s close socialist allies in the Western Hemisphere, Venezuela and Nicaragua, this also looks set to be a period of greater hostility with Washington over the next four years.