Protests have continued this week in Cuba over one of the island’s worst ever economic and energy crises as food shortages and blackouts push the country toward the verge of collapse.
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio took to X on Tuesday to say the disastrous situation was down to Cuba’s long-standing Marxist policies.
“The reason Cuba is on the verge of collapse is because Marxism always leads to hunger, poverty and shortages,” Rubio said.
Entirely opposed to the Cuban government, the senator used social media to refute claims made by Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío, who said in a Press interview that the food shortages were brought on by the US’s long-standing embargoes.
After the State Department urged Havana to respect the demonstrators and “attend to the legitimate needs of the Cuban people” on Monday, Fernández de Cossío accused the United States of “open interference in Cuba’s domestic affairs.”
Critics of the current embargoes point to the Trump administration’s re-enactment of economic penalties, rising food costs, and the impediment to American travel to Cuba as reasons why the energy and food shortages have gotten worse.
The State Department on Tuesday reiterated its stance on the ongoing protests and said it continues to watch the situation “closely.”
