I’m tired of people like U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio exploiting the trauma of my community for political gain. Cuban people suffer from a government that doesn’t care about them. They are hungry, lack basic medicines, and recently the entire island was plunged into darkness after an electrical outage in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Homes fall apart due to lack of maintenance on a regular day, let alone when they are subjected to the stress induced by heavy rainfall and high velocity winds.

Cubans are in pain and want freedom and democracy. Politicians like Rubio weaponize the desperation our exiles have when watching the situation on the island. They offer no solutions to bring freedom to Cuba while accusing their political opponents of being rabid Marxist-Leninists who are on the verge of establishing a communist dictatorship in the United States.

That’s nonsense but it’s effective manipulation of a diaspora community who saw their freedom and economic opportunities stripped away by a revolution which disguised itself as an uprising to establish democracy in Cuba, but turned sharply against those ideals when aligning itself with the Soviet Union in the early 1960’s and forfeiting elections in favor of authoritarianism.

What does Rubio do to help Cuban-Americans, and Floridians? He opposes increasing the federal minimum wage. He supported repealing the Affordable Care Act, which would have resulted in millions of Floridians losing health insurance. He obstructs immigration reform and pathways to citizenship for Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status recipients, denying refuge to those fleeing the same dictatorships he hypocritically pontificates about. His awful record is why I joined the Service Employees International Union 'We Decide' campaign to speak out.

We can’t even count on Rubio to defend democracy here at home. He lives in perpetual fear of Donald Trump and his extremist MAGA base, refusing to criticize the former disgraced reality TV host.