On May 2, 2025, Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar attacked Colombian President Gustavo Petro for requesting that the United States reflect on the effects of the Cuban Blockade, after witnessing the massive marches of the people throughout the island during the May 1st celebrations.
This infuriated the anti-Cuban congresswoman, who, like many in the United States, thought these acts would be a failure due to the hardships the people endure because of the intensification of the economic, commercial, and financial war measures imposed by the United States 66 years ago, coupled with the media campaigns launched from Miami to prevent the people from marching.
Through her account on the social network X, the congresswoman wrote:
“No, President Petro! What you call ‘reflection’ is complicity with a murderous dictatorship. While Cubans flee repression and political prisons, you applaud from afar and justify the unjustifiable.”
One must have very little shame to write such a thing, when she, along with Marco Rubio, Carlos Gimenez, and Mario Díaz-Balart, are accused of betraying the Cubans who entered the United States under humanitarian parole and with the I-220-A document given to them at the border, supposedly “fleeing socialism,” because after they encouraged them to emigrate, they have not proposed in Congress any measure that benefits them.
Everyone saw on TV last year, 2024, how María Elvira rudely confronted then-Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to prevent Cuba from being removed from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism; however, she has not done the same with Marco Rubio, also of Cuban origin, former senator for the state of Florida and member of the same anti-Cuban mafia who made a political career with campaigns against Cuba.
In the face of this inaction, Cubans and other Latinos residing in Florida who have relatives threatened with deportation, placed a giant billboard on the Palmetto Highway, where the photos of these politicians appear with the word “traitors.”
None of them have accused Donald Trump of his decisions to deport all those who entered with the CBP One application, and now they are officially informed that their work permits will expire in two weeks, leaving them unprotected and without resources to support themselves, a situation that has created uncertainty and concern in a population of more than 900,000 people, who until now have paid their taxes.
Since 1959, the Yankee government has initiated strong media campaigns to damage the image of Cuba, inciting illegal departures, forced entry into diplomatic missions, theft of aircraft, ships, and abandonment of missions, all with the aim of making the world believe they were fleeing communism, but now they turn their backs on them because they no longer need them.
Given the number of Cubans settled in the United States as supposed political refugees and without legal status, in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson approved the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows any Cuban who arrives in the United States to apply for legal residence after 366 days, and to receive a work permit 90 days after their arrival, a privilege enjoyed only by those who leave the “clutches of Cuban communism.”
This law is still in effect and cannot be repealed without the approval of Congress, because representatives of Cuban origin in that body presented an amendment that was approved to prevent it from being eliminated and to maintain the manipulated idea that Cubans do not emigrate for economic reasons, but political ones.
Given this complex scenario for thousands of Cubans, María Elvira and her accomplices in the Capitol must stop accusing those who advocate for the elimination of that economic and commercial war, known as the Blockade, and face without fear the deportation intentions foreseen by Trump, with the complicity of Marco Rubio, who is more concerned with protecting his position as Secretary of State and his future aspirations to be president of the empire, than with the fate of thousands of Cubans, now in a legal limbo.
José Martí was precise when he stated:
“The rotten trees must be uprooted from the root.”
