After Cuba’s deputy prime minister said Monday Cubans in Miami and elsewhere will be able to invest and own businesses on the island, one of Miami’s Cuban U.S. House members said anyone who intends to invest with the regime before political change “is insane.”

“If you’re insane, go ahead and invest in Cuba,” said Rep. Carlos Giménez, one of three Cuban GOP House members who represent South Florida and who spoke at a news conference Monday at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. “You need political change before you can have economic change.”

READ MORE: Havana will allow Cubans in Miami, elsewhere to own businesses, trade minister says

Giménez is the sole Cuban-born member of the 119th Congress and represents parts of Miami-Dade County and the Florida Keys. He called the press conference in response to news of economic opening and reports of an islandwide blackout.

South Florida Cubans or any Cuban exiles should not invest in business on the island, Giménez said, adding the current regime cannot be trusted financially or otherwise.

“They happen to be leading a government,” he said. “They’re thieves. They’re ordinary thieves, and they are there just to enrich themselves.”

Cuba used to be the jewel of the Caribbean, but the standard of living is now lower than Haiti due to its communist regime, Giménez said. The government “basically destroyed the island, and they destroyed the people, too.”

In response to the 10 men who had been aboard a Florida-registered boat that Cuban authorities accused of being terrorists, Giménez said he hopes President Donald Trump will not tolerate their persecution and murders.

Pavel Alling Peña, Michael Ortega Casanova, Ledián Padrón Guevara, Héctor Duani Cruz Correa and Roberto Álvarez Ávila died as a result of the Feb. 25 confrontation when the men on board opened fire, striking a coast guard commander and leading to the firefight, according to Cuban officials. The boat took off from Marathon in the Florida Keys.

Amijail Sánchez González, Leonardo Enrique Cruz Gómez, Conrado Galindo Sariol, José Manuel Rodríguez Castelló and Cristian Ernesto Acosta Guevara were detained and charged with terrorism.

With Cuba’s economic crisis worsening, there are a growing number of demonstations of Cuban people being “bolder and bolder” because they are “fed up” about not having access to food, medicine and electricity, Giménez said.

The Miami Herald reported Cuba is in talks with the Trump administration and appears to be cooperating with the United States. But Giménez questioned that.

“There’s nothing that they have that we want,” he said. “We have everything they want, but they have nothing that we want.”

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