OPINION:
Dear Mr. Trump:
Congratulations on your imminent reelection.
We recognize that you have a long list of foreign policy priorities, but we ask that you include Cuba on that agenda.
We care about the Cuban people, and we deeply appreciate the Cuban American community, which twice overwhelmingly voted for you.
But this letter is about our country’s interests. We must put America first.
After your inauguration, we recommend three immediate courses of action on Cuba that in turn support our homefront.
First, the State Department, the intelligence community and the U.S. Southern Command must increase coverage of the immigration and humanitarian nightmare brewing off our shores. For obvious national security reasons, we need accurate information about who is entering our territory.
Only in the last year and only thanks to the press have we learned about cases of former high-ranking Cuban officials, military personnel and officers of the regime who have come. Are they really seeking refuge here?
On the other hand, the U.S. is focused on more exciting political-military secrets. But therein lies a miscalculation we want to avoid. No secrets are at play here: We can see the problem on the island, hear it and touch it.
On top of endemic shortages of food and basic goods, Cuba has entered an energy bankruptcy caused by disastrous centralized Communist Party decisions from which no visible exit exists. Neither Venezuela, Mexico, Russia, China nor other suppliers can solve the fuel and electricity crisis gripping the island, now plunged into darkness with blackouts. This is a fragile, Arab Spring-like situation.
Between 2022 and 2023 alone, 1.8 million people left Cuba, whose current population is under 9 million. Since 2022, more than 850,000 Cubans have fled the dictatorship and entered the United States, the largest exodus in Cuban history, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Mr. Trump, please prepare for the emergency. It is coming.
Second, contagious diseases from Cuba will reach the U.S. The island is too close, and there is much daily back-and-forth travel. We blame neither Cubans nor Cuban Americans. We blame the Cuban regime.
The public health situation on the island could hardly be worse. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, U.S. health authorities have been warning of the dangers posed by contagious diseases spreading across Cuba. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has raised alerts for travelers coming from Cuba due to the uncontrolled presence of viruses such as Oropouche, dengue and chikungunya. We don’t want them in the U.S.
Third, in its desperation, and as is the norm for totalitarians, Cuba has moved yet closer to China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and militant Palestinian and Lebanese nonstate movements. Should there be a global conflict, we will have to devote resources to Cuba. The Cuban regime is too close, and they know us too well for a formal enemy not to ramp up a partnership — overt or covert — in case of an emergency.
As with the recent arrest of Víctor Manuel Rocha, the convicted spy, former U.S. ambassador and former director of hemispheric affairs at the National Security Council, Cuban espionage remains a threat. Today, Cuban mercenaries join their North Korean counterparts as cannon fodder for the Kremlin in its war in Ukraine.
Along with Russia, China and Iran, Cuba has engaged in malign influence operations leading up to our national election, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The U.S. can get in front of these three key concerns: immigration, public health and national security. Please consider:
• Strictly enforcing the Helms-Burton Act, which has been weakened within our system through evasions, regulations and executive orders.
• Resolving the contradiction that Cuba appears on the state sponsors of terrorism list but has been removed from the list of states that do not fully cooperate in the fight against terrorism.
• Creating new mechanisms to eliminate the residual sources of financing for the Cuban regime’s leadership. For example, sanction third countries that exploit Cuban labor, as happens with Cuban medical brigades.
Once again, Mr. Trump, congratulations on your imminent reelection. Most Cuban Americans voted for you. Imagine: After 65 years of U.S. failures, it could be the second Trump administration that finally ends the communist nightmare in Cuba. You can do it, Mr. President.
• Dale Bendler is a retired senior intelligence officer at the CIA, where he served for 37 years and was chief of station in several world capitals. He now runs the Cyber and Urban Safety Co. in Miami (161staysafe.com). Miguel Cossio is a senior Hispanic media executive and chief operating officer of America CV Network, with 35 years of industry experience as a director, producer and journalist.
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