Sen. Rick Scott Encourages Pres. Trump to Increase Pressure on Illegitimate Castro/Díaz-Canel Regime

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Yesterday, Senator Rick Scott sent a letter to President Trump commending his record standing up for the Cuban people and urged him to expand pressure on Cuba's illegitimate Castro/Díaz-Canel regime by building on his January 29, 2026, Executive Order aimed at countering threats by the Cuban government.

This letter comes as the illegitimate communist Cuban regime continues to finance and intensify its system of repression against the brave Cuban people, despite recent announcements of a so-called "mass pardon" that failed to include a single political prisoner.

Specifically, Senator Scott urged the President to tackle the Cuban regime's corrupt medical missions' program, as well as its military conglomerate, GAESA (Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.), that serves as the regime's financial backbone. These revenue streams directly enable the regime to maintain control, silence dissent, and continue its systematic oppression of the Cuban people. The United States cannot allow the Cuban regime to continue profiting while it jails innocent people and denies God-given rights to its citizens.

Listen to Senator Scott's remarks about Cuba in a recent interview with Jorge Bonilla on WAXY-Radio Libre 790, where he reacted to Miguel Díaz-Canel's recent appearance on NBC's Meet the Press and outlined five key questions the regime must answer, HERE and HERE.

Read the full letter HERE or below:

Dear President Trump:

I write to urge you to expand the pressure campaign authorized under your January 29, 2026 Executive Order, Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Cuba, beyond oil to target every major revenue stream sustaining the illegitimate Castro-Díaz-Canel regime, beginning with Cuba's coercive medical missions program and GAESA (Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A.), the military conglomerate that serves as the regime's financial backbone.

Your administration's record on Cuba has been exceptional. The August 2025 visa revocations targeting officials in Brazil, Grenada, and several African nations sent an unmistakable message, and it worked: Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Paraguay, Guyana, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines have all moved to phase out or restructure their Cuban medical mission agreements. Sections 3 and 4 of your January 29 order expressly authorize the President to take additional actions or make modifications as circumstances require. The next step is to apply that same architecture to the revenue streams the current order does not yet reach and target non-compliant countries like Mexico.

Cuba's government dispatches over 20,000 medical workers to more than 50 countries, retaining 75-90 percent of their salaries while subjecting them to passport confiscation, surveillance, and threats against their families. This program generates billions annually, the regime's single largest export. Nations that contract with Havana for these workers are directly subsidizing Cuban forced labor, in violation of the foreign policy principles your January 29 order affirmed. Non-compliant holdouts like Mexico must face consequences.

GAESA is the Cuban military's wholly controlled conglomerate, commanding an estimated 40 percent of the Cuban economy. It dominates tourism, ports, banking, retail and remittances, all without public audit or accountability. When foreign governments sign infrastructure Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with GAESA, they are not engaging in commerce; they are extending the military's economic stranglehold and providing the regime with legitimacy and long-term capital access. This must stop.

I respectfully urge you to consider, pursuant to Sections 3 and 5 of the January 29 order, the following against any nation maintaining active Cuban medical mission contracts or new or existing GAESA infrastructure agreements:

1. Secondary Tariffs. Expand the use of secondary tariffs to target third countries facilitating medical mission revenues, with ad valorem duties calibrated to the scale of regime payments received.

1. Visa Restrictions. Continue to impose targeted visa bans on government officials personally responsible for administering or renewing Cuban mission contracts, building directly on the successful August 2025 actions. Similarly, impose targeted visa bans on company officials with new or existing GAESA infrastructure agreements with the illegitimate Castro-Díaz-Canel regime.

1. Foreign Aid Suspension. Condition or suspend U.S. foreign assistance to any government maintaining active medical mission contracts with Cuba. A cross-reference of mission host countries against aid recipients may reveal hundreds of millions in annual U.S. assistance while simultaneously funding the regime. This must end.

1. GAESA Infrastructure MOU Prohibition. Bar any U.S.-linked entity from signing new infrastructure MOUs with GAESA or its subsidiaries, and condition U.S. bilateral infrastructure cooperation and development financing on the absence of active GAESA agreements. Nations that wish to build with America cannot simultaneously build the landscape or architecture of a brutal military dictatorship at the expense of the Cuban people.

Nations that terminate medical mission contracts, transition to direct-pay models that bypass Havana, or cancel GAESA infrastructure agreements should be commended.

Thanks to your continued pressure the illegitimate Castro-Díaz-Canel regime is financially fragile and the world is closer seeing a free Cuba than it has been in decades. Your January 29 Executive Order built a bold framework to cut off the regime's illicit profits, now is the time to extend it to every revenue stream keeping the dictatorship alive. Medical mission proceeds and GAESA infrastructure deals are the next front. I stand ready to support any complementary legislative action your administration requires.

###