Rubio’s right-hand man promises to escalate economic war on Cuba 

On Thursday, U.S. Special Envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone said in Miami that the Trump administration will ramp up pressure on Cuba. He was the architect of Trump’s policy of economic warfare against Cuba during his first term: “There’re things that may seem upsetting, disruptive, etc., but honestly…go big or go home.”

TRANSCRIPT

On Thursday, U.S. Special Envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone said in Miami that the Trump administration will ramp up pressure on Cuba. He was the architect of Trump’s policy of economic warfare against Cuba during his first term: “There’re things that may seem upsetting, disruptive, etc., but honestly…go big or go home.”

“You already saw during Trump’s first term a commitment to a democratic transition in Cuba. And now we're going to ramp up that pressure”, said Mauricio Claver-Carone. 

Claver-Carone was the architect of Trump's economic war on Cuba during his first term.

“When they think they have a little light at the end of the tunnel, that light will go out”, said Mauricio Claver-Carone. 

“In 2019, the policy was maximum pressure, but we never got to maximum pressure. We not even didn't even get to like 50% of maximum pressure. There's a whole bunch of stuff to go”, said Claver-Carone. 

Claver-Carone used to be a lobbyist who ran the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC. 

The PAC donated millions of dollars to Democrats and Republicans to support sanctions on Cuba. 

Claver-Carone has said the administration will be “very creative” in trying to bring about regime change in Cuba.

He has called for “modernizing Cuba sanctions” so they impact “third parties”. 

“The tools that have been in place toward Cuba are very outdated. Even the sanctions themselves are based on old laws that sometimes have no secondary effects”, said Mauricio Claver-Carone. 

Claver-Carone’s boss is Marco Rubio, another Cuban-American hardliner. 

“This is the most coherent team in foreign policy that I've seen in my lifetime. It’s the most focused on the Western Hemisphere that I've seen in my lifetime”, said Mauricio Claver-Carone. 

Claver-Carone said Trump’s policies would cause “short-term pain”.

“There's things that may seem upsetting, disruptive, etc., but honestly, if you don't do it, it doesn't work. So we have to be all in. Go big or go home”, said Mauricio Claver-Carone.