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.
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Future Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez, his mother Mitzi and sister Mitzi Ann are seen in Cuba before the family fled to Miami in 1960. (Courtesy: Rep. Carlos Gimenez)
“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…
