MIAMI — Two days after the U.S. and Israeli militaries killed Iran’s supreme leader, Florida politicians are calling on and preparing for regime change in Cuba.

Speaking in Miami on Monday, U.S. Rep Byron Donalds, a Naples Republican who is campaigning to become Florida’s next governor, said it was time for the “Cuban regime to come to an end.”

Earlier in the day, state Sen. Erin Grall, a Vero Beach Republican, filed an amendment to her bill, SB 1178, to prepare the state for free trade with the island nation just 90 miles away, if the United States topples the government.

Grall’s amendment first appeared in the House last month; the bills are lining up for passage by the Legislature.

House Speaker Daniel Perez, a first-generation Cuban American from Miami, said the amendment could be necessary.

“If there is a legitimate regime change in Cuba that results in a government aligned with democratic principles and free markets, Florida should be positioned to engage in lawful trade that creates opportunity and strengthens Florida’s economy for families and job creators across our state,” Perez told the Herald/Times in a statement on Monday.

“I have faith that President Trump and Secretary of State (Marco) Rubio will do what is just and necessary to protect American interests and build a lasting peace in our hemisphere,” he added.

So far this year, the U.S. military has captured Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro and was involved in the killing of Iran’s leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But President Donald Trump has said he doesn’t expect to need to use force in Cuba. In recent weeks Rubio has been in talks with Raul Rodriguez Castro, the grandson of Raul Castro, who is still considered a key player in Cuban politics behind the scenes. Rubio told reporters on Feb. 25 after meeting with Caribbean leaders in Saint Kitt’s capital that the U.S. is willing to ease Cuba’s financial crisis, worsened by the United States’ blocking of oil shipment to the island, if the country’s leaders are willing to enact reforms.

“Cuba needs to change,” Rubio said “And it doesn’t have to change all at once. It doesn’t have to change from one day to the next. Everyone is mature and realistic here. We’re seeing that process play out, for example, in Venezuela.”

Venezuela used to export oil to Cuba before the Trump administration’s takeover of the South American nation’s oil industry in January. The Trump administration cut off those shipments to Cuba, then successfully threatened Mexico with tariffs to get it to stop sending oil to Cuba.

The Legislature is likely to pass the amended Cuba bill. Not only do legislative leaders support the amendment, the greater bill is already about a popular Republican subject: “foreign influence.”

Under the added provisions, the governor could immediately begin new trade through an executive order if “the Federal Government changes the diplomatic status of Cuba.”

The governor would then submit “written recommendations for policy changes” to the Senate president and House speaker to take up and pass during the next legislative session.

While campaigning for governor at the iconic Versailles Cuban restaurant on Monday, Donalds, who has Trump’s endorsement, said he wasn’t “privy” to “conversations going on behind the scenes” related to the president’s plans on Cuba. But, like Perez, the House speaker, he said he trusts Trump and Rubio to “do the right thing on behalf of the people of Cuba here in America” and on the island.

“Do I support an end to the regime in Cuba?” Donalds asked. “100%.”

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