MIAMI — In Miami’s Little Havana, Amy Amargos, Joe Aguiar, and Leonel Nora were among the Cuban Americans who are convinced that the only way the island’s problems will be fixed is with new leadership.

Amargos stood along Calle Ocho. She faced a 12-foot-tall dark gray hexagonal marble pillar. The monument has a flame burning from a silver urn, and the engraved names of 107 Brigade 2506 fighters.

The CIA-trained men, known as the “Martyrs of Playa Girón,” died during the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion to get communism out of the island. The desire to free Cuba hasn’t changed.

“Give everyone a chance to live, to breathe, and to be free,” Amargos said on Tuesday. Later, she added that she wants “the whole communist regime out.”

Aguiar and Nora agreed. They were among the Cuban Americans who said communists need to let go of their failed systems and ideas and stop blaming the U.S.

“Let the Cuban people have ... control over their own destiny and improve their lifestyle,” Aguiar said.

Both President Donald Trump and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel have both acknowledged the U.S.-Cuba talks. U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez said Cuban communists who believe in state ownership can’t be trusted to make deals.

“They will allow you to invest and then eventually they will take it over,” Giménez said. “The people of Cuba should start to rise up and throw these bums out that have done this to them.”

After the U.S. cut the flow of Venezuelan and Mexican oil to Cuba, power outages and shortages have challenged Cubans on the island. There have been some nightly protests and vandalism.

In Miami’s Little Havana, Nora thinks more needs to be done. He said he would support Trump’s military intervention.

"I wish he would do something about it, though," Nora said. “We are waiting on it; now is the time.”

More on Cuba

Interactive graphic for history buffs

Cuban Americans in Miami’s Little Havana ask communists to free island

About The Author

Roy Ramos

Andrea Torres