Francesca Chambers

There's a question about whether or not the United States would accept anybody who's related to the Castros.

The law that was codified in 1996, the Helms-Burton Act, which codified the U.S.

embargo against Cuba, specifically says that Fidel Castro, Raul Castro would no longer be in government for an embargo to be lifted.

Some of the other conditions that would have to be met are freedom of speech, as well as the release of political prisoners that are inside of Cuba.

So even if the United States is able to get some sort of an economic agreement

With the Cuban government or with the Castros, there's still a whole bunch of other steps that would have to happen here for this embargo that's been on Cuba from the United States for decades to be lifted.

Well, it's a meager moment for Marco Rubio because so much of his political career has rested on this.

I mean, he interned in the office of the first Cuban-American member of Congress.

He also volunteered on the campaign of another Cuban-American member of Congress.

And then they became his mentors.

And he...

rests on their shoulders i've heard from friends of marco rubio so this is something that's really driven him his entire political career but his own parents left cuba before fidel castro took power and they came to the united states for economic opportunity he grew up in a community of cuban exiles

So this isn't something that's just important to him.

And I visited South Florida and I talked to some of his former constituents and they said that they trust Rubio to be able to get some sort of an agreement that relieves oppression inside of Cuba.

As far as the Trump administration and what its approach has been, it has been focused on an economic pressure campaign against Cuba to try and force it to make the changes that it wants to see ever since the capture of Maduro in Venezuela.

The Trump administration has been choking off oil supplies to Cuba.

The only way that they're sending the oil is by sending it through private businesses that exist in Cuba to try and force an economic opening.

They've also gotten Mexico to stop selling oil to Cuba as well, which has made Cuba economically reliant on the United States.

That has been the strategy.

so far.