Marco Rubio Promises Ultimatum For Cuban Regime: 'Open Up Or Be The Owners Of a 4th World Country'

Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio referred to the Cuban crisis during his nomination hearing on Wednesday, promising an ultimatum to its leaders by saying they can either open up the country and its economy or be content with "being the owners of a 4th world country."

Answering a question from fellow Florida Senator Rick Scott about his take on some of the most represented nationalities of Florida, Rubio offered detailed commentary on Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba. He left his take on Cuban for last "because it's the one that has been more enduring."

"The problem in Cuba is that, despite being a communist regime and Marxism not working, they thought what they would do is create this holding company called GAESA," said Rubio to being his commentary on the regime. "It's a company owned by the Cuban military and that company owns everything that makes money in Cuba. If it makes money in Cuba they own it and it generates money for them. The Miami Herald just did an exposé on GAESA and while you have electrical blackouts and have all these other economic problems in Cuba, GAESA is sitting on billions of dollars that they've generated for their permanency."

The report by The Miami Herald referenced by Rubio was published back in December takes a deep dive into leaked GAESA internal financial records which revealed how much the military has diverted the country's hard currency to its enterprises, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars.

"In recent years, GAESA — short for Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.— has expanded its control of the island's most profitable businesses, including tourism, retail, telecommunications and money sent to Cubans by families abroad," said the report.

As he did with Venezuela earlier on in his intervention, Rubio took a jab at the Biden administration when referring to the GAESA case:

"In 2017, the Trump administration sanctioned Gaesa. Unfortunately the Biden administration lifted some of those sanctions and restrictions a couple of years ago which increased the amount of money they´re able to generate by things like manipulating remittances"

During another passage of his hearing, Rubio was asked by Senator Ted Cruz whether he believes Cuba is a State sponsor of terrorism, a clear call out to the Biden administration's decision on Tuesday to lift the regime's designation as such. "Without a question," answered Rubio. He then went on to recount the Cuban regime's relationship with Colombia's FARC and ELN, Hamas and Hezbollah, concluding that "there is zero doubt in my mind that they meet all of the qualifications for being a state sponsor of terror." Cruz then asked him if he would work to reverse the decision once in office. And while Rubio refrained from providing a concrete answer, he said the incoming administration won't be bind by the decision and it can easily be reversed.

As for his take on Cuba's future, Rubio said "the moment of truth is arriving", explaining that the island is "literally collapsing":

"They're going to have a choice to make, those that are in charge there: do they open up to the world and allow the individual Cuban to have control over his economic and political destiny even though it threatens the security and stability of the regime or do they triple down and just say we'd rather be the owners and controllers of a fourth world country that is falling apart?"