Rep. Diaz-Balart calls meeting between U.S. Coast Guard and Cuban regime 'anti-American'

Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart on Monday said he was “appalled” by the recent announcement by the U.S. State Department to welcome members of the Cuban regime to meet with the U.S. Coast Guard and tour U.S. port facilities. 

"I am appalled by the announcement that the U.S. State Department is facilitating a visit between the Cuban regime and the U.S. Coast Guard to tour U.S. port facilities,” the congressman said in a statement about the visit that is part of the “International Port Security Program.”

“Not only is Cuba a U.S.-designated state sponsor of terrorism, but the Cuban regime was also caught by Panamanian authorities smuggling 240 tons of weapons to North Korea in 2013. For this, it was found by a UN panel of experts to have committed the largest violation of international sanctions against North Korea to date. Among the weapons discovered were two Soviet-era MiG-21 fighter aircraft, air defense systems, missiles, and command and control vehicles, which were hidden under over 200,000 bags of sugar,” Diaz-Balart continued.

Diaz-Balart, who is a known champion for the Cuban people made the comments shortly after it was learned the Biden administration would receive members of the Cuban Border Patrol to tour the facilities of a U.S. Coast Guard military installation in Washington, D.C.

In a Feb. 24, 2023 letter sent to President Biden, Sen. Marco Rubio also blasted the administration's recent decision. 

The letter highlights Cuba's "continued support provided to the Maduro narco-regime in Venezuela, as well as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Colombia.

"Both foreign terrorist organizations [that] carry out attacks against civilians and engage in drug trafficking. Trafficking that brings cocaine, fentanyl, and other drugs to our shores."

Diaz-Balart, who serves as a Congressman for a large district in South Florida that partially covers Miami also made note of Cuba's recent support of the Kremlin's illegal efforts in Ukraine. 

“Additionally, the Cuban regime supports Russia in the Ukraine war, adopting Putin's lies and propaganda in exchange for continued postponed repayment of Cuba's estimated $2.3 billion owed to Russia until 2027,” he added 

“Cooperating on ‘port security’ with this anti-American, malign dictatorship, which has demonstrated support for terrorist groups such as the ELN and the FARC, as well as adversaries such as Communist China, Russia, Maduro, and Iran, would be laughable if it weren't so extraordinarily reckless and dangerous,” the congressman concluded. 

The Cuban Border Guard has historically been involved in violent confrontations with vessels seeking to leave the island.

In July 1994 world famous incident, the Cuban Border Guard intentionally sank the 13 de Marzo tugboat carrying 37 innocent refugees trying to escape to the United States, leaving no survivors.

"There is sufficient evidence to indicate that it was an official operation and that, if events occurred in the way described by several of the survivors, those who died as a result of the incident were victims of extrajudicial execution," said a report published by Amnesty International.

Of these hostile acts, the most recent was the Sept. 29, 2022 sinking of a boat near the town of Bahia Honda in the Pinar del Rio province, an incident which several people lost their lives.

In that incident, the survivors denounced that they were rammed by the Cuban regime's Boarder Guard boat.