– Welcome back. As President Trump weighs a potential negotiated deal with Cuba, Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Giménez is pushing for regime change. And he joins me now. He’s the only Cuban-born lawmaker in Congress, by the way.
Congressman, good to have you with us. When you think of regime change, what comes to your mind? How is it achieved, and what does it look like in the aftermath?
– Well, the aftermath is a democratic Cuba that’s no longer an adversary to the United States, no longer harbors our biggest adversaries in the world, like China and Russia, Iran, and North Korea. And they’re friendly to that. And they have huge intelligence-gathering operations that are happening in Cuba right now. And so what I envision is a Cuba which is free and democratic and a friend of the United States and is no longer a security threat to the United States.
MAJOR GARRETT: And how does that happen?
– There’s no playbook for that, Major. And so what is happening right now is because of the complete incompetence and corruption of this regime, the regime cannot provide even power to its people. There’s nightly blackouts. There’s very little food. There’s very little medicine. And the people are getting more and more desperate.
And so they’re coming out in thousands, basically banging on pots and pans at night. And in some cases, they’re actually setting fire to some of the Communist Party buildings. And so the uprising is starting.
So that’s one way you can, very similar to what happened in Eastern Europe in the late ’80s, when the Communist regimes there were overthrown. It’s the population. And the people say, enough is enough. You guys got to go. And that’s the one way I would like it.
But this regime is very oppressive. And any time that people come out, people lose their lives. Thousands of people are thrown in jail. And that’s how they’ve been able to keep power, by basically scaring the people to death. I guess they have to have– they keep what they have, I mean, which is nothing. But the regime is very, very oppressive and has been for decades.
– So the president talks a lot about Venezuela, and he talks about it as a surgical operation that took out Nicolás Maduro. The regime remained, but the regime, seeing that surgical military operation, turned over a new leaf and became more cooperative with the United States. Is that something that could happen in Cuba?
– First of all, I don’t believe that assessment either. What we have now in Venezuela is a interim dictator. Delcy Rodríguez is part of the Maduro regime. The only reason that she does and cooperates with the United States is she saw what happened to Nicolás Maduro, doesn’t want it to happen to her.
But eventually, we also have to turn the page there. Venezuela deserves to be free and democratic, and the only way that Venezuela is going to be a friend of the United States for the long term is with a new regime.
The people of Venezuela have to choose who their next leader is. They already chose that about a year ago. And Nicolás Maduro stole that election. And so they have Elían González and María Corina Machado, which won the Nobel Peace Prize. They’re waiting in the wings. They’re the rightful government of Venezuela. They’re waiting in the wings.
I support that democratically elected government. We need to get that as soon as possible. Knowing that, also as soon as possible, we need to have another set of elections with a new reality and see who the Venezuelan people actually choose as their leader. And once you have that, then you’ll have stability in Venezuela. Then you’ll have a friend of the United States, completely different situation than Cuba.
– So let me ask you this. You hear the president’s rhetoric as much as I do. He seems content with what’s going on in Venezuela now. Does that discourage you about what he might be willing to accept in Cuba? Or do you fear that he might be willing to accept something similar?
– No, I don’t think he’s going to accept Delcy Rodríguez as the final answer. I mean, when– really, think about it, what he says is, yeah, she’s great. She’s great. She does everything that I tell her to do, that’s a backhanded compliment, especially in Venezuela and especially with the people of that regime are saying, oh my god, she’s doing what the president of the United States wants him to do. And so really, I think that’s just setting up for the next steps. What the plan in Venezuela is stability, which this regime, I guess, provides it for a while, an economic recovery, and then a transition, and what’s called reconciliation. And that reconciliation is a transition to a democratic Venezuela.
For some of us, it can’t happen quickly enough, and some of us have to be a little more patient. But I think, at the end, the end game for this administration, the Trump administration and Secretary Rubio, is some transition to democracy in Venezuela. Now, the playbook in Cuba–
MAJOR GARRETT: Very quickly on Cuba.
– OK, yeah.
MAJOR GARRETT: Very quickly on Cuba.
– The playbook is more pressure, economic pressure, do not allow them to escape, because they are at the weakest position they’ve ever been and just keep the pressure up. And then we’ll see what happens next, what steps the United States has to take in order to bring about the change that’s so necessary for our security and also the freedom that the Cuban people deserve.
MAJOR GARRETT: I appreciate the time. Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Giménez, I appreciate it. Thanks.