Cuba-born rep says emotional 1st return in 64 years with Gitmo CODEL left him 'amped-up' to see it liberated
EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Carlos Gimenez returned to his homeland of Cuba over the weekend for the first time in 64 years, saying he is now "more determined than ever" to see the island liberated from dictatorship.
Gimenez, R-Fla., the only Cuban-born member of Congress, joined a congressional delegation (CODEL) to the U.S.-managed Guantánamo Bay military base there, and noted the rest of the nation is still run by the iron-fisted communist government that took over when President Fulgencio Batista was overthrown by Fidel Castro in 1959.
The Gimenez family – Carlos Sr., Mitzi, Carlos and Mitzi Ann – left the country when the future Miami fire chief, Miami-Dade County mayor and congressman was just 6 years old.
"Now that I visited the only free part of Cuba, I want to make sure that the rest of the island is also free from this communist tyranny," Gimenez said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
"I was already amped up. Now I'm really amped up. ... I've always wanted it (to see Cuba liberated), but now I kind of made a pledge that I'm not going to go back until the entire island is free."
The congressman said his memories of Cuba remain in "20-second" video snippets in his memory and that his feelings about Cuba started welling up when he first caught the outline of the island from the plane taking the lawmakers to Guantánamo Bay.
"It dawned on me it was the first time I'd seen it in nearly 65 years – how beautiful it is – it's just a place that is so special; and to have, really, a group of thugs and dictators and oppressors ruin it – I was somewhat emotional, but then that turned to anger."
Gimenez said he could envision his grandparents living in Oriente Province – which borders Guantánamo Province.
The lawmaker was born in Havana but said he lived half of each year on a ranch in Manzanillo, Oriente – only a few dozen miles west of Guantánamo Bay, and on the opposite end of the island from the capital city.
"There are certain memories that just pop back in my head and have for a long, long time. And so all those came back again – I was grateful to go back. And it was emotional. But it also, I guess, incentivized me more."
However, visiting his hometown remained out of the question on the CODEL – as Gimenez described the potentially deadly security barrier between Guantánamo Bay and the rest of Cuba.
While East Berlin had Checkpoint Charlie, and North and South Korea have the DMZ restricting movement, the border between Guantánamo Bay and mainland Cuba is fortified with hundreds of thousands of landmines planted by the regime.
Representatives of the Cuban government tend to meet on a monthly basis with their U.S. counterparts at a bunker near Guantánamo Bay, but only for base management purposes rather than diplomacy, according to Gimenez.
The lawmaker learned that in the past few months, there have been no such meetings.
The CODEL, led by Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, followed an executive order from President Donald Trump directing illegal immigrant criminals to be detained at Gitmo under ICE supervision.
Rogers said in a statement the CODEL met with U.S. service members assigned to the base as well as the law enforcement officials in charge of "facilitating the removal of some of the worst criminals."
"Border security is national security, and I'm proud of the role the Department of Defense has played in protecting our nation and ending the invasion at our southern border," Rogers said.
Just over a dozen of the 780 total non-illegal-immigrant detainees since 2002 remain at Gitmo.
In 1966, Cuban workers at the base were given a choice, Gimenez said: either go back to Cuba-proper, or remain working on-base for life. About 40 of those workers are still alive in Gitmo, unable to return to their homes in the rest of Cuba. Many are in their 80s, and there is an assisted living facility for those of advanced age that remain on base, he said.
Gimenez has long advocated for a peaceful yet decisive end to the seven-decade dictatorship now led by Miguel Díaz-Canel, the handpicked successor of the late Raúl Castro, who had previously taken over from his brother.
A democratic Cuba could be the best friend to the U.S. in the Caribbean region, Gimenez said. Having Cuba under its current constitution sitting only 90 miles off the famous Southernmost Buoy in Key West is also of national security concern, many in Florida believe.
With Trump at the helm and a renewed, revamped foreign policy and national security focus, Gimenez said in the interview that "all of the pieces are in place" to move more swiftly toward ushering-in a democratic Cuba once more.
"It's a question of will. I certainly have the will -- this is the time. Now is the time," he said Monday.
"I just want to make sure that whatever I can do to make it happen."
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