Ron DeSantis waits to hear from Biden administration about Cuba internet hookup

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Gov. Ron DeSantis may have had the former President on speed dial, but he’s having a harder time getting responses from Joe Biden on his Cuba concern.

Thursday in Fort Pierce, DeSantis told reporters he was waiting to hear from the White House still regarding a letter he sent Biden as the “Cuban uprisings” began and the communist regime “moved to snuff out the internet.”

“I wrote Biden a letter saying ‘let’s restore connectivity,'” DeSantis said, noting a number of alternatives that “all require the federal government’s approval.”

“As of yet, we haven’t gotten that. We haven’t had anybody respond to me in any way about that,” DeSantis lamented, saying that circumventing the cyberblockade is “the least you can do at this point.”

“I’m still waiting for a response on that,” DeSantis added.

The Governor made a similar plea at a press conference Monday, saying “time was of the essence.”

“We would like to see not just a response but we’d like to see a positive response. It could make a big difference to the situation that’s going on down there,” DeSantis noted.

The messaging started last week, however.

On Friday, the Governor suggested that satellite technology could be used to provide internet technology to the island. Some have suggested that balloons could be the mechanism.

“One of the things I think we should be able to do with our private companies or with the United States is to provide some of that internet service via satellite,” DeSantis said at a roundtable last week in Miami.

DeSantis also wrote the aforementioned letter formally requesting Biden’s help.

“Steps must be taken immediately,” the Governor urged on July 14.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has said the Biden administration is “looking into” the feasibility of the idea.

“The message is, you have his attention,” Psaki said.

As the White House dithers, fervor continues on the pro-liberation right, as seen on national television with Sean Hannity Wednesday night. DeSantis and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio were featured as part of a town hall from Miami’s famed Versailles where the call to Biden was to “tighten the screws” on the communist Cuban regime that has controlled the island for 62 years and counting.

The internet proposal, as DeSantis’ comments there suggested, is a domino leading to regime change.

“Let’s get real here. Let’s understand who the people are who stand on the side of freedom and stand with them.” the Governor said. “Let’s tighten the screws on the regime.”

DeSantis cited the Monroe Doctrine as a good guidepost for policy.

“We don’t want to have any influence from Russia and China,” DeSantis said, urging an appeal to the Organization of American States, one that Rubio and many other members of the Florida Delegation have already signed off on.

DeSantis’ call has been met with wide praise among conservatives.

Former U.S. Ambassador Carlos Trujillo said it shows that DeSantis “believes in the founding principles of this country, the very principles of liberty that we saw the people of Cuba, for the first time in a long time, taking to the streets to demand — that is until the internet was cut off by the regime.”

Jorge Luis “Antúnez” García Pérez, leader of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Resistance Front and Representative Abroad of the Academy of Civic Action Julio Machado, added, “Governor DeSantis is on our side and we have to respect the rule of law here in Florida as we seek to bring the rule of law to Cuba. Our brothers who are in Cuba need to know that we are united and focused on liberty for our country and our enthusiasm, pain and patriotism for liberty will help us reestablish freedom in Cuba.”