<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s parents emigrated from Cuba to the United States three years before Fidel Castro seized power through a Communist revolution in 1959.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">They were looking for economic opportunities. Mr. Rubio’s father, Mario, eventually found work in Florida as a bartender, and his <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article235626687.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">mother, Oriales</a>, as a hotel maid, cashier and Kmart stock clerk.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Yet, Mr. Rubio talks about dismantling the Communist government with the same passion that galvanizes many political exiles who left the island after the revolution. The indictment of the Raúl Castro, 94, the patriarch of the family, is in line with Mr. Rubio’s enduring mission, and it is just the latest in a series of efforts by the U.S. government to weaken Havana that Mr. Rubio has supported or engineered.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">“President Trump is offering a new path between the U.S. and a new Cuba,” Mr. Rubio said in a <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/us/politics/rubio-cuba-us-trump.html" title="">brief video address</a> on Wednesday that was directed at the Cuban people.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">“The reason you are forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to an oil blockade by the U.S.,” Mr. Rubio said in Spanish. “The real reason you don’t have electricity, fuel or food is because those who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people.”</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Within Mr. Trump’s cabinet, Mr. Rubio’s focus on Cuba stands out, but it is par for course in the Cuban American milieu of South Florida. There, fiery anti-Communist politics are the norm, and casual banter can revolve around the ways in which the United States might one day oust the leaders in Havana.</p><div class="css-kbghgg"><div class="css-121kum4"><div class="css-171d1bw"></div><div class="css-asuuk5"><noscript><div class="css-7axq9l" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-1u67kh9" data-tpl="i" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><path clip-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 12a9.5 9.5 0 1 1 19 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 1-19 0Zm8.5 1.75v-7.5h2v7.5h-2Zm0 2v2h2v-2h-2Z" fill="currentColor" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript-message"><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.</p><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.</p></div></div></noscript><div class="css-1dv1kvn" id="optimistic-truncator-a11y" tabindex="-1"><hr/><p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. 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