From her seat on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, at the end of last week, U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., urged President Joe Biden to not support the Cuban regime.
Salazar joined U.S. Reps. Mark Green, R-Tenn., and August Pfluger, R-Tex., in sending a letter to Biden “calling on him to implement a Cuba policy that holds the regime accountable for its human rights abuses and support for authoritarian regimes in the region” and to “take the steps necessary to restrict the flow of U.S. dollars to the Cuban military, maintain designations that hold the regime accountable for its support for global terrorism and continue support for democracy on the island.” They also expressed “grave concern about the threat Cuba’s communist dictatorship poses to the national security of the United States and the stability of the Western Hemisphere.”
On Friday, Salazar weighed in on why she sent the letter to the White House.
“I was born in Little Havana – the daughter of Cuban exiles. My community, of victims and survivors of tyranny, understands all too well the true despotic nature of the ruthless Castro dictatorship,” said Salazar. “It’s not the time for concessions to the very same regime that continues to jail, starve, murder and systematically oppress the people of Cuba. It’s time to support the brave men and women yearning for freedom within the island and it is my hope that this administration stands with the Cuban people and not the brutal tyranny that oppresses them”
“The list of human rights violations by Cuba’s communist regime is extensive and includes the suppression and torture of political dissidents without due process or adherence to the rule of law. Political dissidents are held in notoriously atrocious prison conditions, and the Cuban dictatorship has a history of exporting its oppressive system and undermining the region’s democracies. We are urging President Biden to maintain the previous administration’s policies and not revert to the failed appeasement policies of the Obama administration,” Green said.
“America is the beacon of freedom and democracy, and our foreign policy towards authoritarian regimes must hold them accountable for any and all human rights violations and oppressive actions,” Pfluger said.
Reach Kevin Derby at kevin.derby@floridadaily.com.
