SLP, Mexico.- The United States Senate confirmed this Monday Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, thus becoming the first of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees to win approval from the upper house.
As reported by the agency Reutersthe Senate confirmed Rubio in a 99-0 vote, as his former Senate colleagues praised his qualifications for the job.
Rubio, a 53-year-old Cuban-American, has extensive experience in foreign policy and has adopted hard-line stances towards China and Iran and has supported sanctions against the regimes of CubaVenezuela and Nicaragua.
During his confirmation hearing before the United States Senate last Wednesday, the Cuban-American senator attacked the Cuban military corporation GAESA, which he blamed for concentrating most of the island’s income and aggravating the economic crisis that the country is going through. country.
The Republican also stressed that GAESA accumulates million-dollar resources while the population faces prolonged blackouts: “And why are there electrical blackouts and so many other economic problems in Cuba? GAESA sits on billions of dollars for its permanence,” he highlighted during his appearance.
When asked by Texas Senator Ted Cruz whether Cuba was a state sponsor of terrorism, Rubio answered: “Without a doubt.”
Likewise, he criticized the recent elimination of sanctions on entities of the regime by the Joe Biden government and pointed out that “the new Administration is not obliged to maintain that decision, but, for the moment, that is what is in force.”
In his opinion, this step could favor the Cuban authorities, who, he noted, maintain a failed model “because Marxism does not work, because there is corruption.”
Marco Rubio has supported the Cuban opposition and has condemned the acts of repression by which peaceful protesters who take to the streets to denounce human rights violations on the Island have been arrested.
In a statement published by Miami Heralddescribed the Castro government as “cynical” in the face of the popular expressions of discontent that had occurred in December 2020, and said: “The ongoing repression occurs at a time when the Castro-Díaz-Canel regime is facing a growing pressure of the Cuban people, who demand that their rights to freedom of expression and other basic freedoms be respected.”
For the newly elected Secretary of State, one of the keys to helping Cubans is to prioritize the demands of the people, which is why the policy must be “zero tolerance” towards the Government elite.
