Republican Sen. Rick Scott took aim at Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar for criticizing the Trump administration over the economic pressure it is exerting on Cuba, saying she is “delusional.”
He was reacting to a social media publication in which Omar said that “labeling Cuba as a ‘national security threat’ is a lie used to justify economic war.”
“The goal is to crush the Cuban people, manufacture a humanitarian catastrophe, and force regime change at any cost. It is unconscionable and cruel. We must stop it,” she added.
Scott, on his end, called Omar to “talk to the Cubans in my state who fled a regime that’s goal was to ‘crush the Cuban people’ and ‘manufacture a humanitarian catastrophe’ all so they could maintain power.”
“Labeling Cuba as a national security threat isn’t a lie, it’s yet another reality you refuse to accept,” Scott concluded.
Omar is not the only Democrat making that argument. Last week Rep. Chuy Garcia said that “”for 65 years, the U.S. has maintained an embargo against Cuba, deliberately starving civilians in the hope that their desperation triggers an uprising.”
He went on to claim that the tariffs could force “more migration” and argued against them. “Cuba poses no threat to the United States, but that’s not the point. Trump is manufacturing an excuse for cruelty and regime change,” he concluded.
Trump has rejected that notion, recently saying that the situation in the island “doesn’t have to be a humanitarian crisis.”
“I think they’ll probably come to us and want to make a deal. So Cuba will be free again. They’ll come to us and make a deal. Cuba really has a problem. I know a lot of people from Cuba. We have a lot of people in the U.S. right now who would like to go back to Cuba. We’d like to work that out,” Trump added.
Cuba, however, has already begun limiting some activities as fuel shortages resulting from U.S. pressure on the Havana regime intensify.
The Associated Press detailed that public transport between provinces is experiencing limitations, and some educational establishments told workers to stay at home.
The outlet noted that primary and secondary schools operated normally. So did banks, bakeries and pharmacies.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel had already warned that the country is making preparations to face “acute fuel shortages” as a result of pressure exerted by the United States.
“We’ll live through tough times. These, in particular, are very tough,” Diaz-Canel told press on Thursday.
Originally published on Latin Times
