Miami Mayor Francis Suarez says Biden’s Cuba condemnation, sanctions are ‘not enough’

President Joe Biden’s condemnation of the mass detentions of anti-government protesters in Cuba and newly announced sanctions against the island nation’s top military general are “not enough,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said Thursday.

“We’ve also been calling for internet access. We’ve also been calling for the president to rally the international community to get the Organization of American States involved,” Suarez told reporters during a press conference outside City Hall.

The son of Miami’s first Cuba-born mayor, Suarez has said he expects the Biden administration to consider all options for putting pressure on the Cuban government, and military intervention should not be ruled out.

“We’ve also been talking about humanitarian intervention,” he said. “We’ve also been talking about finding ways to help the Cuban people defend themselves.”

Suarez, a Republican in a non-partisan post, spoke shortly after Miami commissioners unanimously approved a resolution urging the U.S. federal government to “take any and all actions necessary to assist the Cuban people in their call for freedom and end the decades-old dictatorship.” The stance comes amid daily demonstrations in Miami’s Cuban-American community in support of Cubans who have taken their dissatisfaction with the government to the streets.

The commission is also calling on Washington to provide medical equipment and treatment to help combat a surge of COVID-19 cases on the island.

City Hall has historically been a platform for Miami’s large Cuban exile community to stand for freedom on the island, denounce people criticized as communist sympathizers, and to push the White House for stronger action against the Cuban government.

Commissioner Joe Carollo, who came to the U.S. in 1961 when he was six years old under Operation Pedro Pan, said he was going to join “Freedom Teams” in several major U.S. cities to hold press conferences explaining the situation in Cuba and drumming up support to pressure the White House to take greater action.

The commissioner, who was mayor of the city in 2000 when Miami exploded after armed federal agents seized 6-year-old migrant Elian Gonzalez from his family’s Little Havana home and returned him to Cuba to be with his father, added that to end communist rule in Cuba would be to “cut the head of the serpent” — an event he said would have ripples across several Latin American countries.

“This is simply not about any political party over another,” Carollo said. “The only thing we’re interested in is liberty for Cuba, for Venezuela and for Nicaragua.”

Miami-Dade governments call for White House action

Miami is the latest local government to urge the Biden administration to take stronger action to assist the Cuban people.

Earlier in the week, Miami-Dade County commissioners unanimously approved their own resolution urging the Biden administration to employ all technological options to allow internet access in Cuba, coordinate an international humanitarian response and support a transition to democracy while “strengthening economic sanctions.”

Commissioner René Garcia, chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party, sponsored the resolution supporting the sanctions loosened under the Obama administration and strengthened under Trump.

“It’s not the embargo that has been hurting the Cuban people,” Garcia said. “What has been hurting the Cuban people is a tyrannical dictator.”

Oliver Gilbert, a Democrat and the commission vice-chairman presiding at the meeting, saw a flurry of hands when he asked if other commissioners wanted to join the resolution.

“Okay,” he said, “everybody is co-sponsoring it.”

Smaller municipalities around the county passed resolutions in support of the Cuban people, too. During the July 13 meeting of the Coral Gables City Commission, officials voted unanimously on a resolution “supporting the Cuban people’s pursuit of freedom.”

In a letter summarizing the resolution, Mayor Vince Lago, a Republican, asked that the federal government “intervene to help the Cuban people break the chains that have kept them in shackles for so many years.”

He asked specifically for the strengthening of economic sanctions, a public denouncing of the current government, recognition of the movement’s efforts on behalf of democracy and a coordinated international effort for humanitarian aid.

And last week, the Republican Cuban-American mayors from Doral, Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, and Miami Lakes released an open letter that stated in part: “We ask that our nation intervenes to help the Cuban people break the chains that have kept them in shackles for so many years.”

Calls for Biden to visit Miami

In Miami City Hall, a local hub of Cuban-American political power, elected leaders said they are still waiting to hear from Biden in what they see as a watershed moment. Miami commissioners called on the president to come make a strong statement against Cuba’s community government.

“He hasn’t even had the courtesy to call the mayor of Miami,” said Cuban-born Commissioner Manolo Reyes.

Commissioner Ken Russell, one of two Democrats on Miami’s majority Republican commission, said the call for support for Cubans transcends political party and requires urgent responses from Washington.

“Timing is everything,” Russell said. “You can argue all day long about the embargo and the policies of the past, but here we are today.”

The protests in Cuba have moved the political spotlight onto Miami’s Cuban American elected officials, some of whom are in the middle of campaigns. Carollo and Suarez are both up for reelection on Nov. 2. Russell is running for the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. Marco Rubio in 2022.

Miami Herald staff writer Samantha Gross contributed to this report.