Miami-Dade Commission must speak out against Cuba loopholes | Opinion
Our community is home to the largest Cuban exile population in the United States and the world. We are families who fled dictatorship, political imprisonment and economic collapse. We know that the time is now to increase pressure on the regime, cut off the lifelines that sustain it and finally bring freedom back to the Cuban people.
With the tightening of sanctions on Venezuela, reduced access to Venezuelan oil by the regime and decisive actions by President Donald J. Trump, the dictatorship is facing unprecedented external pressure.
That is why I introduced a resolution that establishes Miami-Dade County’s position with respect to the Cuban regime and the immediate need to strengthen pressure.
These policy recommendations are rooted in real facts on the ground that are unique to our county. Here in Miami-Dade we see storefronts, service providers and logistics companies openly advertising commercial transactions with Cuba. These patterns are visible, measurable and tied to the daily flow of money and goods that reaches a dictatorship 90 miles from our shores.
A significant part of this problem involves general licenses that were created for narrow, humanitarian purposes. These general licenses are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Their humanitarian scope has expanded in ways that raise legitimate questions about how they are being used.
We routinely see public advertising, social media promotion and news coverage of goods and services being routed to Cuba that appear commercial in nature, rather than humanitarian. These patterns have prompted concern within our community about whether the licenses are being used as intended and whether the activities they facilitate serve the Cuban people or the regime.
Miami-Dade has seen related risks firsthand. Recent compliance efforts by Miami-Dade County Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez highlight the need for further investigation.
The president has taken decisive action to end years of failed Cuba policy. Upon taking office, he reversed measures that weakened sanctions, restored a firm enforcement posture, reaffirmed Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and reimposed clear limits on engagement with regime-linked entities. That leadership restored credibility to United States policy and sent a clear message to Havana.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio understands this fight because he comes from this community. He has shown how the regime survives by exploiting loopholes, forced labor and weak enforcement. With Trump’s leadership and Rubio’s clarity, the United States is applying the pressure needed to bring this dictatorship to its end.
But policy alone is not enough. Enforcement is what makes sanctions real. That is why Miami-Dade’s resolution calls for the immediate suspension of applicable Cuba-related general licenses and exports pending targeted audits.
Those audits must determine who is receiving the goods, whether recipients are tied to the Cuba Restricted List and whether the activity is genuinely humanitarian or simply commerce disguised as charity.
The Miami-Dade County Commission and our entire community must speak out against the Cuban communist regime’s attempts to exploit loopholes to enrich itself and crush dissent.
Natalie Milian Orbis is a Miami-Dade County commissioner.