Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to take a hawkish position on Cuba’s current government, suggesting U.S. support should be on the ground in the country to facilitate the process of regime change.
“What we want is if it got to the point where you could have change in Cuba, I’d like people in the U.S. to go and help with that,” DeSantis said in Miami.
DeSantis didn’t go into detail as to what that “help” would entail, leaving it to the imagination as to whether a Venezuela-type situation where an objectionable leader was simply removed would be the move, or a more resource-intensive effort like the one currently underway in Iran.
DeSantis did affirm support for what he called a “potential indictment” of Raul Castro over the downing of planes late last century. Castro is now 94 years old, so that indictment and apprehension likely would put American taxpayers on the hook for his end-of-life healthcare costs while delayed justice was served.
President Donald Trump has suggested some movement is likely, saying Cuba is in “decline” and needs “help.” However, the Iran situation has proven to be resource-intensive, as opposed to the relatively seamless transition thus far in Venezuela. Trump has even floated Venezuela as a “51st state.”
CIA head John Ratcliffe has told Cuban leadership that they still have a chance to voluntarily engage with the Trump administration.
DeSantis spoke at some length about Cuba, including his opposition to boats bringing refugees from the island containing “military age males showing up on our shores” with contraband and firearms.
He also praised the doomed Bay of Pigs invasion, saying the brigade, which was defeated by Fidel Castro’s forces in two days back in 1961, was “right to try to stop” the then-new dictator. The insurgency was backed by the CIA, which ultimately failed to support the effort.