Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez (R) appeared on a FOX News interview where he discussed Cuba’s financial and economic position after losing support from Venezuela, following former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s arrest.
When asked how close Cuba is to economic collapse, Gimenez responded, “very close.”
“They can't keep the power on or feed their people, and they don't have any medicine. Venezuela was one of the leading sources of income. Venezuela was giving Cuba billions of dollars in oil. They would then sell it on the market for currency. Now that's being negated,” Gimenez said.
The congressman claims that a free Cuba, however, would be exponentially harder to achieve given the island’s low amount of natural resources in comparison to a resource-rich Venezuela.
“Cuba has been under a communist dictatorship for over 60 years. It's time for the people of Cuba to be free. Cuba is going to be a tougher nut, though, than Venezuela. It doesn't have the natural resources that Venezuela does. Venezuela can lift itself, you know, fairly quickly, with the resources that it has, the riches that it has,” Gimenez elaborated.
He shed a ray of hope on the situation by claiming that the Cuban diaspora would be willing to go back to the island and invest in the country and help it reinvent itself.
“Cuba doesn't have that advantage, but it does have Cubans that live outside of Cuba that are willing to go back, reinvest in the country in the infrastructure, and bring that country back up,” he concluded.
Since the rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 1999, Cuba has depended heavily on Venezuela for subsidized oil in exchange for Cuban medical professionals, military advisers, security forces, etc. Without Venezuelan oil, Cuba’s already crippled economy will likely spiral even further.
“If oil supply were to cease entirely, the Cuban economy would grind to a halt,” Pavel Vidal, a former Cuban central bank economist, said in an interview with NBC News.
