A top Republican lawmaker issued a warning Wednesday against the dangers of socialist policies creeping into the federal government as the Cuban people continue to suffer under a widespread blackout.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., the only Cuban-born lawmaker in Congress, said the tragedy facing the island is directly attributable to the 65 years of leftist, authoritarian rule under the Castro brothers and now President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
“We’ve got six days now when the entire island of Cuba has been blacked-out,” Gimenez said, further describing how the government at times has initiated 20-hour regional blackouts to conserve power.
“But at least they had some electricity [then]. Now the entire island is blacked-out. This is all due to the incompetence of the system: the socialist-communist system that the Cubans have had…”
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A general view of the city during a nationwide blackout caused by a grid failure in Havana, taken on Oct. 18, 2024. (Photo by Yamil LAGE / AFP)
Gimenez said the entire situation is a warning against electing Vice President Kamala Harris and lawmakers with socialist tendencies and those who self-identify as such.
“Bernie Sanders, AOC, and now Kamala Harris is [sic] to the left of Bernie Sanders: I’ve always said they’re all socialists,” he said, further suggesting Sanders and others’ use of the term “democratic socialist” is a distinction without a difference.
“They’re trying to bring this kind of government, this style of living, to the United States. And that’s why I’m vehemently against it. Cuba’s a great example. Nicaragua is also a great example, and so is Venezuela … of what these regimes do.”
“You see Bernie Sanders always apologizing for what’s happening in Cuba. Same thing with AOC, and not so much with Kamala Harris. She’s being a little bit smarter than that. But since she is to the left of Bernie Sanders, you can tell she’s sympathetic to these regimes.”
“That’s the kind of system they want to bring to the United States of America.”
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Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro (R) poses for a picture with Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel upon his arrival at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. (JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)
Cuba completely lost power Friday after its electrical grid collapsed upon the failure of the Antonio Guiteras Power Plant.
Compounding that situation, Hurricane Oscar, a Category 1 storm, made landfall over the weekend in Guantanamo state. By Monday, some power had been restored chiefly to Havana, the capital.
Cuba’s state utility reported only 200 of the roughly 3,000 megawatts of electricity needed to power the country was being generated as of Monday, according to the Miami Herald.
Gimenez said that Cuban citizens have been warned not to demonstrate against the government during this crisis, adding that dissidents are regularly jailed for public expression.
“That’s to instill fear in the Cuban people so that they don’t rise up against this dictatorship. That’s what communist-socialist governments do. They’re totally incompetent. This communist-socialist government doesn’t work, hasn’t worked, and will never work.”
Gimenez warned that in instances such as the current blackout and the continued suppression of free speech and protest against the government, everyone is treated the same:
“They’re all miserable — go talk to the people in Cuba and see if they would rather have a socialist system where they want freedom like we have here in the United States.”
While Cuba may not have free and fair elections, Gimenez said Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans are indeed “voting with their feet” and emigrating from their suppressive nations to the U.S. in droves.
Such is true in Miami, he said.
In a Tuesday recording, he stood on an upper floor of the outdoor Brickell City Centre mall over top of Route 41 and gestured to show how Miami grew from a veritable trading post to a vibrant metropolis in the years since Cuban migration began following the Castros’ coup.
“I think the answer is very obvious, since they’re are already voting … with their feet.”
“Part of the reason we have so many immigrants coming here is because of these failed systems. And these folks are trying to bring those failed systems and policies here in the United States.”
The Cuban-American vote is key in local and statewide elections in Florida. More than 1 million reside in Miami-Dade County alone.
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Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) speaks at a Cuban freedom rally near the White House on July 26, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
They also tend to trend conservative, as evidenced by journalist-turned-politician Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar’s, R-Fla., 2020 upset of former Clinton HHS Secretary Donna Shalala in the Kendall and Little Havana area.
Looking ahead, Gimenez said the next administration must put “maximum pressure” on Diaz-Canel’s regime, adding that humanitarian assistance alone never makes it to the people and only enriches the government.
“The only thing that they understand is force. They don’t understand you being nice to them. You can’t be,” he said.
If Cuba was to become a democratic government with an alliance with the U.S., it would deal a blow to America’s other rivals China and Russia — denying them safe harbor, literally, in a geopolitically key area just 90 miles off of Key West.
“But foremost, [it would] give [Cubans] the freedom they deserve.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Matteo Cina contributed to this report.