Cuban-American lawmakers in Congress slammed the Obama administration’s announcement that he has released three convicted Cuban spies in exchange for the release of Alan Gross, who has been imprisoned by the Cuban government for the past five years.
The criticism was bipartisan, and included a scathing denouncement from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez.
“Trading Mr. Gross for three convicted criminals sets an extremely dangerous precedent,” Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat whose parents fled Cuba in 1953, said after the announcement. “It invites dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans serving overseas as bargaining chips. I fear that today’s actions will put at risk the thousands of Americans that work overseas to support civil society, advocate for access to information, provide humanitarian services, and promote democratic reforms.”
Along with Gross, an aid contractor, Cuba also released a non-American man who had spied for the U.S. His name is not being disclosed by American authorities.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., another son of Cuban immigrants, made the rounds on television cable outlets and blasted Obama’s announcement, which is part of a larger administration effort to normalize relations with the Cuban government. Cuba allows no free elections or free speech, and the government is essentially a dictatorship.
Rubio called Obama’s move “absurd” and said Obama demanded no concessions from the Castro government.
“It does set a very dangerous precedent,” Rubio said. “It’s part of a long record of coddling dictators and tyrants that this administration has established.”
Aside from Menendez, congressional Democrats announced their support of the move.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who is retiring this year and is the outgoing chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised the release of Gross, who was captured in Cuba while serving as an aide worker in the country. Levin also threw his support behind the Obama administration’s announcement that it would seek to normalize relations with Cuba.
“A more regular relationship between the United States and Cuba has been overdue and is now possible,” Levin said. “U.S. policy up to now has not worked in U.S. interests, and it has not weakened the Cuban regime.”
