Cuba — closer than ever to freedom

In homes across Miami-Dade, generations have carried the weight of exile, a quiet but unshakable longing for a homeland taken by tyranny. I grew up surrounded by it.

As a first-generation American of Cuban descent, I was raised on stories of sacrifice. Our parents and grandparents didn’t leave Cuba because they wanted to; they left because they had to. They were stripped of their freedom, their property, and their future. They came to this country carrying loss and only the shirt on their backs, but also something stronger: faith. Faith that freedom was real. Faith that it was worth everything. Faith that one day, Cuba would be free again.

That kind of longing doesn’t fade with time. It gets passed down. It becomes part of who you are, right alongside a deep gratitude for the nation that gave our families what Cuba could not: opportunity, dignity, and the ability to build a life.

But even as we built our lives here, part of our hearts never left that island. And today, something feels different.

For the first time in decades, that long-held hope no longer feels distant. It feels within reach. Across the island, the Cuban people are rising, speaking out despite repression, despite fear, and despite the consequences that come with defying a dictatorship. They are demanding the same freedoms our families came here to find.

And they are not alone.

Under the leadership of President Donald Trump and Secretary Marco Rubio, the United States has reasserted moral clarity in its approach to Cuba and the Western Hemisphere, reinstating Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, tightening sanctions on regime-connected entities, and making clear that the era of one-sided concessions is over. For too long, failed policies gave cover to a regime that has never earned legitimacy. That chapter is closing.

This is not the time for concessions. It is not the time for normalization. It is not the time to ease pressure on a regime that continues to jail dissidents, silence its people, and deny basic human rights. It is time for resolve.

We must stand against the dictatorship that has oppressed the Cuban people for generations and stand unequivocally with the people themselves. That means sustained pressure, real accountability, and a refusal to legitimize tyranny in any form.

Because this is not just a policy debate. It is about families who were torn apart, people who were murdered for simply asking for basic human rights, generations who grew up with a piece of their identity missing, and a whole country that has waited far too long to live in freedom.

In Miami-Dade, we understand this in a way few others can. We carry the memories. We carry the pain. And we carry the responsibility to speak clearly and act with conviction.

The Cuban people are closer than ever to the freedom they deserve.

Now is the moment to keep the promise, because too many of our parents and grandparents, including my own father, are no longer here to see the free Cuba they spent their lives dreaming of. We owe it to them to finish what they never stopped believing in.

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René García serves as Miami-Dade County Commissioner for District 13.