Monitor conditions on the island. The same United Nations that did nothing when cuba, last year, was caught helping north korea of aid un sanctions. This entire policy announced today is based on an allusion. On a lie. The lie and the allusion that more access to goods will translate to Political Freedom for the cuban people. All this is going to do iis give the castro regime which controls every aspect of human life the opportunity to manipulate, to perpetuate itself and power. These changes will only lead to greater wealth and influence for the regime. Especially the military, which controls most if not all of the cuban economy. And controls all of its oppressed people. These changes will lead to legitimacy for a government that shamelessly, continuously abuses human rights. But it will not lead to assistance for those whose rights are being abused. It is just another concession to attorney by the obama administration, rrather than a defense of every universal and an inalienable rights that our country was founded on it stands for. In short, with these changes are going to do as they will tighten this regimes grip on power for decades to come. And it was significantly set back the hope of freedom and democracy for the cuban people. Now, i am overjoyed for alan gross and his family. He has been a hostage kept against his will for far too long. Our prayers are with him and his family because he was not just a prisoner, he was a hostage. But this president has proven today that his Foreign Policy is more than just naive. It is willfully ignorant of the way the world truly works. They agreed to impose sanctions on the venezuelan officials were violating human rights. A government who has spent all of 2014 killing, jailing, and oppressing their own people. And yet, we make historic concessions to the cuban government. The cuban government is influential at the highest levels of the regime. This policy contradiction is absurd. And it is disgraceful for a president who claims to treasure human rights and human freedom. This president is a single wish negotiator we have had in the white house in my lifetime. He has basically given the cuban government everything it asked for, aand received no assurances of any advancement in democracy. Let me close by reminding everyone that god bestowed on the cuban people the same rights that he did on every other man, woman, and child that has ever lived. The inalienable rights spoken about in our founding documents. The cuban people look to america to stand up for these rights. To live up to our commitment to the godgiven right of every person. To life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights exist not disreputable one in the continental United States just for the people born in the continental United States, but for people everywhere. It is unacceptable that people who do not know democracy for more than five decades is the people of cuba. That should be our overriding objective to do all we can to bring about political openings in cuba. Then a free cuban people can decide about the measures they want. But these measures will do nothing to bring about that day and, in fact, i fear significantly set it back. By conceding to the oppressors, this president and this administration have let the people of cuba down. Senator you have some things here about what you think might happen, which is continuing to happen based on this policy. We have seen other critics towards camp david and so on. Why you so confident, in this case . Because i know the cuban regime better than this president and anyone in this administration does. This regime and applets everyone to their advantage. They deliberately chose to allow people to come to this country, but forced them to leave their families behind. That way, they would guarantee that these people were sent back remittances to cuba. They deny people access to others. This is a regime that singlehandedly manipulate time and again, the cuban government has manipulated every single concession this administration has made to their advantage. The number one goal of the cuban government is to remain in power. And anything we do will be to buy them into a mechanism for remaining in power. The cuban government will never let any changes that will threaten their ability to maintain a grip on power. You are going to see that again in the months and years to come. You call the president the worst negotiator. He said a short time ago that he was to work with congress to do the things necessary to normalize relations. What, specifically, can congress to in response . Well, my sense is that i anticipate i will be the chairman of the western hemispheres subcommittee of foreign relations. And i anticipate we will have a very interesting couple of years discussing how to get an embassy funded. About the exchange with the three remaining cubans. This has been rumored for months, maybe even more, that this was in the works in order to get alan gross back. What is your reaction to that . I am glad that alan gross is back. He never should have been there to begin with. Let me just take this moment to point out something that the president said that is factually incorrect. The president said that cubans do not have access to advanced, twentyfirst Century Technology because of the u. S. Embargo. That is false. The reason why they dont have access to 20 to Communications Like smart phones and access to the internet is because it is illegal in cuba. The reason why allen gross was taken hostage was because he was trying to help a small Jewish Community in cuba have access to that equipment. So for the president to say that it was because the u. S. Embargo is categorically false. The second point out make to the present is the cuban government is going to control the internet, the same way the Chinese Government control the internet. This notion that cuba is going to allow the cuban people to access any website they want is ridiculous. They are not going to allow that to happen. My last point on it is that im glad mister gross is back with his family. I am always concerned anytime that we trade legitimate spies for innocent americans because it sets it actually now in creates an incentive. But, i am happy he is with his family today. And i focus my remarks here today and make criticisms on the unilateral changes the president has made, which i think will have a dramatic impact on freedom on the island. [speaking in spanish] [speaking in spanish] our understanding is that the present is doing this his remarks towards the pope. Does his remarks have any influence on how quickly you might decide to run for president . I think that my understanding i have not criticize the release of mister gross. I would also ask his holiness to take up the cause of freedom and democracy, which is critical for people to truly be free. I think the people of cuba deserve the same chances that the people of argentina have had, where he comes from. My point is that i hope that that people with that sort of prestige on the world stage will take it out for the cause of freedom and democracy. The cuban people are the only people in this hemisphere who have not been able to elect a leader in more than fiftyfive or sixty years. For this government, under barack obama, to give up everything is unacceptable in my mind. This is unrelated to anything prior. Im not going to discuss that today. Do see this move as yet another unilateral move done by the present wwithout speaking to the congress . With regard to the acts, i would say that i would can see that many of the changes have been made today fall within the purview of the presidency. My comments are based on the fact that these are unwise decisions. The fact that i now know, for fundamental truth, that this will make the day when democracy comes to cuba even further away. They are going to utilize these changes to create more wealth, more funding for their oppressive regime. In a few years, youre going to see them here in the halls of congress to lobby. I saw that this week when we tried to pursue and pass a bill that supported democracy protesters in hong kong. My office is getting phone calls from companies that do business in china asking us to back off. You are going to see that here now, too. Alan gross was released from prison and that, of course, goes handinhand with the change in policy. Would you have rather seen him remain imprisoned . According to the white house, they do not go handinhand. The interchange between the United States and cuba on the three spies with a american held in prison suffices to say, the three prisoners the three spies that were in u. S. Custody were not benign spies going around cutting up newspaper clippings. At least two of them were involved in direct information given to the cuban government that led to the murders of american citizens were patrolling the streets in florida or national waters. President obama alluded to young cubanamericans, saying that they accept more normal relations. Which is quite different from what you are saying. How do you explain that the Younger Generation partially, because im fortythree i feel fortyfour and partially because, look, this is not a political thing. I dont care for 99 of the people believe we should normalize relations with cuba. I believe that before we can normalize relations, democracy has to come first. Or at least significant steps towards democracy. I think we share including the individuals that the present discussed freedom for cuba. I would say that if you want the majority of if you went to the majority of the people out there and said we are going to recognize them, were going to open up the banking sector, we are going to do and in exchange, all cuba is going to do is release fiftythree prisoners they can put back until next year. Most people would say, well, that is not the idea we had in mind. Let me be clear, i am in favor of normalizing relations with cuba. But for that to happen, cuba has to be normal. Cuba has to be a democracy. The day they take significant steps towards democracy, i will be the first one to stand up here and say now is the time to change policy. That day is clearly not today. You have been told that the Administration One be for it. Did you consult congress . A couple points. I was aware of these measures last night, not from the administration. I chose not to discuss it at the time because i do not want to imperil the safety and wellbeing of mister gross. Who, as i understood, was in route or potentially in route. I was not consulted by anyone in the administration until about 10 00 am this morning, when secretary kerry placed a call to me. I expressed a secretary my belief that they are being incredibly naive, if not willfully ignorant about the impact that this is going to have on cuba. All of a sudden democracy is going to spring. That is ridiculous. The notion that somehow this is going to lead to a second cuban revolution, despite the fact that humans are not able to buy more goods from the United States. I interact with people who have been oppressed by it every single day. These changes will do nothing to change their behavior toward cuban people. It will be just as impressive a year from now as it is today. You say that congress was not consulted well, i do not know that they consulted other members of congress. I was not consulted. I spoke to no one in the administration about it until 10 00 am this morning. What is your nomination on 2016 . I am not discussing 2016 today, out of respect and the gravity for this issue. I will say that, in congress, were going to do everything we can. It is something that i am personally committed to being a part of. By the way, im also committed to liberty, freedom, and democracy in north korea, and hong kong, and china wwhich is why i have been an outspoken critic of the Chinese Government. Cuba is close to home for me, because of my heritage and the people i know. I know, firsthand, how this oppressive regime manipulates families for purposes of perpetuating themselves in power. I know what they are capable of doing to people who speak out against the regime. None of that is going to change. None of the measures taken today they will do absolutely nothing to change the course. [speaking in spanish] translated this is the worst leader i have seen in my life. He has change basically nothing. I just wanted to ask you about how committed you are to blocking the funding for an embassy, and blocking the nomination of an ambassador, given the fact that you have actually a lot more power. Have you made a decision on how you are blocking at . I am committed to do everything i can to unravel as many of these changes as possible. Have you figured out yet which would you can unravel . Obviously, it has been just a few hours since this announcement has been made. It is up to the present to implement policy and execute policy. Time and again, you have seen that he has forgotten it. But ill use everything under my authority to see this unraveled. I do this not out of animosity, but out of animosity towards the cuban governments regime and oppression of their people. I have never analyze this issue from an electoral perspective. This is how it passionately feel quite frankly, it is irrelevant. As i told you earlier, i dont care of 99 of people in polls disagree with my position, this is my position. And i feel passionate about it. I am glad that im on this side of human rights and freedom. I hope that we can have the conversation turned congress to overturn these policies today. The president says that if you do the same thing over and over, it doesnt work. Do you agree with him . In fact, that is a good point. I think we should increase the measures that we take against cuba. For example, the violation of human sanctions. Last year, in the panama canal, a ship that left cuba was intercepted. On that shift was illegal items. The government did nothing. And it should have. This government has been slow to criticize cuban Human Rights Violations over the past few months. This government accepted their attendance at the summit, a summit that was put together by a collection of democracies. It was never intended to include a communistic dictatorship, which is what cuba is. I disagree in what he has done about it. This argument that somehow the embargo has not worked, therefore lets try something completely different. Sounds good on paper, but heres the reality. Just because we change our policy towards cuba, does not mean allow we allow cuba to do whatever it wants. Yes, maybe there will be more Telecommunications Companies in cuba. But what people are able to view on the internet is going to be completely controlled by the cuban government. Where people are going to spend that money is completely controlled by the cuban government. Yes, more chips are going to be allowed. But that is going to be completely controlled by the cuban government. They are not going to agree to anything that destabilizes their grip on power. The sooner the administration realizes that, the less problems will have. [speaking in spanish] translated i think that the government is a dictatorship. Last year, they they support a dictatorship. I will answer cubas stance. I think cuba is a terrorist government. Whether they are kidnapping celebrities or otherwise. In a panama canal, ship was intercepted from cuba that violated sanctions. That sounds like terrorism to me. In a statement a few moments ago, the president said it made no sense, and the twentyfirst century, for country like you were to be on the list. Can you talk about the prospects of congress being able to actually listen . This congress is not going to lift the embargo. Thank you. Senator rubio wasnt the only one reacting today. Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to welcome from here fromr washington. We agreed there would be a good dialogue, which has been absent from our relationship for too long. It was good to be able to welcome them here today to continue the dialogue we began when i was in rwanda. Before we begin, it is important for me today to say a few words about the release of allen gross. Im happy to talk about allen after the unspeakable tragedies of this past week. Every single one of us are really grateful to see alan home on american soil, to see him free and reunited with his family, to feel and witness the is sharingis family today, that all the people in our country are sharing on their behalf. It couldnt be a better gift for the holiday season. Privilege of meeting with alan and his wife shortly after he came back. I want to say that judy, who we have gotten to know over the course of these months has been indefatigable. Hope alive today could be a reality. We are happy that alan is now free and reunited with his family. I was a 17 euro kid when i first heard an american president talk about cuba as an imprisoned island. For 5. 5 decades since our policy towards cuba has remained virtually frozen. It has done little to promote a prosperous democratic and stable cuba. There is no other country in the world to which we have closed our lives for as long as we have with cuba. The berlin wall fell 25 years ago. The wall separating americans and cubans has yet to come down. Not only has this policy failed to advance americas goals, it has actually isolated the United States. Instead of isolating cuba. To countriesed out where our wounds are far deeper than they are in cuba. 20 years ago i saw firsthand how three president s, one republican and two democrats undertook a similar effort to change the United States relationship with the anon. It wasnt easy. It still isnt complete today. T had to start somewhere make no mistake, it has worked. We made peace. We normalized relations. We even signed a trade deal with vietnam. Anybody who has traveled there today will tell you how much that country has changed and is continuing to change. Are there things yet to achieve . Of course. But we are dealing with a country in which thousands of americans died or the course of our lifetime. That is not the situation with cuba. Today, we have a choice. We can ignore change and resist it, or we can mold and channel it into a new set of his. In 2009, when he first became president , president obama has taken steps forward to change our relationship and improve the lives of people of cuba by easing restrictions on remittances and on Family Travel area with this new opening, the president has committed the United States to begin to chart an even more ambitious course forward. In january, as part of the president s directive to discuss moving toward reestablishing diplomatic relations, assistant secretary for western hemisphere