U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar says the days of communist rule in Cuba are near an end. But she doesn’t think it will take a military invasion to bring it about.

The Coral Gables Republican said she does not believe military action is imminent, or that it will become necessary to spark change. That’s despite increasingly sharp rhetoric from Donald Trump administration voices, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and reported preparation on the part of the U.S. military.

“I do not really think that’s going to happen,” Salazar told Florida Politics. “The Castros are going to be a little more intelligent than (Nicolás) Maduro and they are going to go by their own volition.”

She made the comparison between the family of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro, most notably his brother and former Cuban President Raúl Castro, and deposed Venezuelan President Maduro, who was captured in a U.S. military strike and taken into custody on drug trafficking charges.

Of note, Axios this weekend reported on intelligence that Cuba had acquired 300 military drones capable of striking the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay or even hitting Florida. Key West sits only about 90 miles north of the island.

That has drawn a flurry of speculation about the likelihood of Cuba acting as an aggressor, though Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said he has not been warned about any imminent threat. The Cuban Embassy issued a statement responding to the Axios report questioning the motives of a leak, but notably without denying possession of the drones.

“Like any country, Cuba has the right to defend itself against external aggression. It is called self-defense, and it is protected by International Law and the UN Charter,” reads a social media post by the Embassy.

“Those from the U.S. who seek the submission and, in fact, the destruction of the Cuban nation through military aggression and war, do not waste a single moment fabricating pretexts, creating and spreading falsehoods, and distorting as extraordinary the logical preparation required to face a potential aggression.”

Salazar, for her part, does not believe Cuba would make such a move.

“Do you really think that the American military is going to allow the Cubans, who have no water, electricity, food, medicine, to really attack with drones? I mean, the Cubans are more intelligent than that,” she said.

“I’m talking about the Cuban regime, and they know that that’s just a threat. It’s just a paper tiger, but that’s it. And if they were to dare, because they lost their minds, I mean, why should we even go there? There’s no comparison, militarily speaking, between both countries.”

While Salazar doesn’t foresee the need for invasion, she does support the U.S. Justice Department, similar to its treatment of Maduro, indicting members of the Castro family.

“There should be a criminal indictment of Raúl and many of the people who are in the top echelon in the Cuban military and the repressive apparatus. We’re talking about torturers. We’re talking about all kinds of morally despicable people that should be in jail,” she said.

“And if the United States does not take them to trial, I think the Cubans, in the near future when there is a democratic Cuba, we should have Nuremberg trials for those who committed crimes — torture crimes, like in Villa Marista and in all those different jails, where hundreds of thousands of Cubans have gone through. And they have endured the rigors of a Castro regime just for thinking differently — not because they committed any crimes, it’s just thinking and speaking differently.”

Amnesty International has detailed reports of inhumane prison conditions at Villa Marista, where prisoners reported being kept in small, solitary cells with 24-hour artificial light. Often, watchdog groups say, political prisoners have been denied medical care.

Salazar, Chair of the House Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, said other Latin American nations aligning themselves with Cuba over the U.S. do so at great risk to their own standing in the world. That includes Mexico, which has looked at expanding investment in Cuba amid tension between the U.S. and both nations.

“How could you be helping? How could you be helping these thieves, morally despicable people? How could you be helping them?” Salazar said. “It’s like helping rapists or murderers. What does that mean to you?”

She expects to raise that issue with the just-announced U.S.-Mexico Caucus, where she is a founding member.

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