Sen. Rubio calls Biden’s sanctions on the already-embargoed Cuba ‘meaningless’

The sanctions in question were issued on Thursday and only target assets held inside the US and only apply to the Cuban Minister of Defense, Alvaro Lopez Miera, and the special police force known as the "Black Berets." It's known that neither Miera nor the Berets have any US possessions or assets.

According to the Daily Wire, Rubio said on social media: "Biden sanctioning an already sanctioned regime official in Cuba is the kind of symbolic but meaningless measure we will continue to see as long as @POTUS is being advised by people who were drinking mojitos in Havana in 2015 to celebrate the Obama policy."

Jose Gabilondo, who teaches law at Florida International University, agrees with Rubio, saying: "I actually don’t think they have any significance. I think their goal is to appease part of Joe Biden’s would-be electorate because he did poorly in Florida." Gabilondo said, "There were already a quite complex set of sanctions in place. It's kabuki politics."

There is some thought that the Biden administration may be tiptoeing around the issue of sanctions in order to appease some of the far-left members of its caucus, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who said recently:

"We also must name the U.S. contribution to Cuban suffering: our sixty-year-old embargo. Last month, once again, the U.N. voted overwhelmingly to call on the United States to lift its embargo on Cuba."

"The embargo is absurdly cruel and, like too many other U.S. policies targeting Latin Americans, the cruelty is the point. I outright reject the Biden administration’s defense of the embargo. It is never acceptable for us to use cruelty as a point of leverage against every day people," the congresswoman said.

Widespread protests continue in Cuba, with the Cuban public defying authorities in large numbers, demanding freedom and liberty for the island's residents.