Cuban-American Congressman Carlos Giménez, Republican of Florida, demanded this Thursday in letters that Delta, American Airlines and other airlines suspend all their flights to Cuba while pressure from the Trump Administration on the island grows after the attack on Venezuela.
“The persistent commercial flights to Cuba directly benefit the regime, not the Cuban people, and contradict US law and decades of bipartisan policy designed to deny resources and legitimacy to the dictatorship,” said the legislator, born in Havana and representative of a Miami district.
Giménez, leader of the Congressional Transportation and Maritime Security Subcommittee, warned in his letters to the directors of airline companies that allowing commercial flights “to a regime that is openly hostile to the United States presents serious risks to national security and public safety.”
With this, the federal representative, one of the most critical of the Government of Cuba, raised his demands, after announcing last week that he would ask President Trump to prohibit all trips and the sending of remittances to the island.
Reference to Trump’s executive order
In the letters, Giménez warned the airlines that Trump declared a “national emergency” last week due to “the threat” posed by Cuba, by imposing tariffs on countries that supply oil to the island, which Washington also considers a “State that sponsors terrorism.”
“Continuing with such (air) operations represents the risk of legitimizing and financially supporting a government that represses its citizens, threatens regional stability, and acts in direct opposition to US security interests,” the legislator insisted.
While the congressman revealed the letters, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, assured this Thursday in a television message that the island “is willing to have a dialogue with the United States” on “any topic”, to build “a civilized relationship between neighbors” and of “mutual benefit.”
Trump warned on Wednesday that “Cuba is in big trouble” in an interview with NBC, in which he also stated that his Administration “is talking to Cuba.”
Expectations about the future of Cuba have grown after the US intervention in Caracas that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro on January 3.
