GOP Rep. Warns Cuban Regime Not To ‘Continue Defying’ Trump: ‘Will Annihilate You In a Matter Of Seconds’

Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez warned the Cuban regime not to “continue defying” the Trump administration because it “won’t last long” if they get on its “bad side.”

“The Cuban regime must have realized that Trump is quite patient and generous when you’re on his good side. Now, if you continue defying President Trump and Secretary Marco Rubio, I guarantee you won’t last long if you’re on his bad side. Trump will annihilate you in a matter of seconds,” Gimenez said in a social media publication.

Top officials in the Trump administration have been calling for the Havana regime to change course drastically or risk being overthrown. In this context, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it will need to allow the people “more freedom” if it wants to avoid losing power.

Speaking to Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference during the weekend, Rubio was asked if there is an “off ramp” for the regime as the U.S. continues to intensify pressure on Havana.

“It is important for the people of Cuba to have more freedom. not just political but economic. The regime is not willing to give it to them. It is afraid that if the people of Cuba can provide for themselves they lose control over them,” he said.

“The regime has survived almost entirely on subsidies,” Rubio added. “First from the Soviet Union, then Hugo Chavez. Now they don’t have any. the model has been laid bare.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Rubio said that the “fundamental” problem with the country is that “it has no economy, and the people who are in charge of that country and in control of it don’t know how to improve the everyday lives of their people without giving up power over the sectors they control.”

In the meantime, the Cuban economy continues teetering on the brink of collapse. On Friday, a massive fire broke out at the Ñico López oil refinery in Havana Bay, sending a towering plume of black smoke into the sky, further straining the country’s energy failing energy grid.

Elsewhere, a loaded oil tanker docked in a port in western Cuba despite the ongoing blockade.

Spanish news agency EFE detailed that the Nicos I.V. entered the bay of Matanzas on Monday. The vessel’s identification code is IMO 9103843, its flag being from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It appears to be partially loaded.

The outlet could not confirm whether the ship came from a port outside Cuba, but should that be the case it would be the first such vessel docking there since the Ocean Mariner arrived from Mexico with about 85,000 barrels of oil.

Originally published on Latin Times