Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House and his choice for Secretary of State Marco Rubio will make life even more difficult for Cubans than it already is.
“This is probably the most difficult moment of the Cuban revolution,” says former Cuban diplomat Jesus Arbaleya. “And unfortunately, I don’t see anything on the horizon that makes me optimistic about the future of U.S.-Cuba relations.
“Donald Trump has handed US policy toward Cuba to those sectors of the Cuban-American right that have essentially lived off anti-Castro policies from the start.”
Mr. Arboleya adds that Marco Rubio, currently a US senator from Florida, is a leading voice among them. He is a Cuban-American who has long opposed the communist government in Havana.
His parents were Cubans who moved to the U.S. in 1956, three years before Fidel Castro seized power, but his grandfather fled Castro’s turn to communism on the island.
“People are horrified at the idea of another Donald Trump presidency. This means real trouble,” repeats Cuban political commentator and editor of Temas magazine Rafael Hernández.
Current U.S. policy toward Cuba is “somewhat schizophrenic,” he argues.
“On the one hand, the State Department promotes support for the private sector and (insists) on economic changes in Cuba. But on the other hand, Congress and the Senate seem to be freezing any progress on these reforms.”
