U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) during a March 8 press conference held with other Cuban American members of Congress called on the Biden administration to keep Cuba on the U.S. State Department’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
“We are asking the Biden administration not to remove Cuba from the list of terrorist countries because they are terrorists and they are terrorizing their own population,” Rep. Salazar said outside the U.S. Capitol. “We want for the Cubans the same thing we have [in America]: we want freedom, we want liberty, and we want human rights, we want a free market economy and we just don’t have it.”
And while Cuban regime defenders attempted to derail and interrupt the press conference with common Castro-ist talking points, Rep. Salazar pointed out that while they use their freedom to defend oppression, Cubans on the island do not have the freedom to protest for their liberty.
“We’re sending the Biden administration that message and… to open their eyes, not to drink the Kool-Aid, and not to negotiate with a snake because once again I say the Cuban regime is the snake that will bite you every time time you come close and inject venom into your veins to kill you because they want to preserve the business of power,” said Rep. Salazar during the press conference.
The congresswoman is also the sponsor of the Fighting Oppression until the Reign of Castro Ends Act (FORCE) Act, H.R. 314, which she introduced in January 2023 alongside 16 Republican original cosponsors.
If enacted, H.R. 314 would prohibit removing Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism until the president makes the determination that a transition government in Cuba is in power, according to the congressional record bill summary.
H.R. 314 was approved by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee in March 2023. The measure has not yet received a full House vote.