Rubio says travel restrictions to Cuba are fulfillment of Bolton's promise

WASHINGTON – Sen. Marco Rubio reacted to President Donald Trump's decision to ban cruise ships and recreational vessels to Cuba and to no longer allow educational travel by writing on Twitter Wednesday that it is the fulfillment of national security adviser John Bolton's speech in Miami-Dade County. 

Bolton's speech reinvigorated the Monroe Doctrine, a policy established in 1828 to prevent outside powers from intervening in the hemisphere. Bolton also dubbed Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua the "Troika of Tyranny."

Before Bolton's speech, Trump had already been rolling back former President Barack Obama's efforts to normalize relations. During his campaign in Miami-Dade, he promised to do everything in his power to prevent U.S. dollars from getting to Cuba's Communist regime. 

It's a position Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart has long supported. 

"At this time, while the regime in Cuba is subverting democracy in Venezuela, opposing U.S. interests in our hemisphere, and oppressing the Cuban people, it is crucial that we do all we can to deny U.S. dollars to that brutal dictatorship," Diaz-Balart wrote on Twitter. 

The Trump administration announced the new ban will take effect on Wednesday. Rubio also wrote the ban is Trump's direct response to the role that the Cuban government plays in support of Venezuela's embattled President Nicolás Maduro. 

"Regime insiders know he can't hang on much longer," Rubio wrote.

This week Maduro used social media to continue to flaunt his meetings with leaders of the Venezuelan military, which has support from Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitriy Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that Russian operatives are in Venezuela cooperating with Maduro.