Rubio: No End to Embargo Without Regime Change

Speaking yesterday at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on U.S. policy toward Venezuela, Rubio said the United States would “love to see” a change of government in Cuba and that such an outcome would benefit U.S. interests.

Pressed by Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), Rubio claimed the 1996 Helms-Burton Act codified the embargo and explicitly conditions its removal on political "transition" in Havana.

But the idea that the president’s hands are tied by Congress has been disputed by at least one legal expert.

To end the embargo, the president could “simply declare it terminated and issue the executive orders necessary to resume trade and investment with Cuba,” according to Robert Muse, a lawyer who specializes in U.S. sanctions. Alternatively, the president could "let the embargo die through non-extension” in September 2026 by declining to renew the Trading with the Enemy Act, a wartime provision that serves as one of the primary legal underpinnings for U.S. sanctions on Cuba.