By SUSAN FERRECHIO
Chief Congressional Correspondent
While the Congressional Republican leaders remained silent about President Barack Obama’s move to lift restrictions on travel, communications and aid to Cuba, two Cuban-American House Republicans bashed the move.
The White House said it was removing a decades-old ban on travel to Cuba, a communist dictatorship, and will allow visits by those in the United States who have family members in the country. In addition, the White House said, it will begin allowing people in the United States to send money and gifts to Cuban residents and will open telecommunications between Cuba and the United States.
Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart, Florida Republicans and brothers of Cuban decent, said the move marked a betrayal of a promise Obama made in his inaugural address in which he seemed to indicate the United States would be unwilling to help dictatorships.
Obama, the two men said in a joint statement, “has violated his pledge,” and committed a “serious mistake” by lifting the restrictions, which they believe will help empower the repressive tactics of the Cuban government.
‘Unilateral concessions to the dictatorship embolden it to further isolate, imprison and brutalize pro-democracy activists, to continue to dictate which Cubans and Cuban-Americans are able to enter the island, and this unilateral concession provides the dictatorship with critical financial support,” the Diaz-Balart brothers said.
Obama aides have indicated that the policy change is aimed at emboldening the people of Cuba, not its government. It also fulfills one of Obama’s campaign promises.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., offered somewhat reserved support of Obama’s move, saying it would allow Cuban-Americans to help their families in Cuba.
“The Cuban people deserve free and fair elections, and basic human rights,” Pelosi said. “I believe this can be achieved without dividing families and denying many Cuban Americans a final chance to see their loved ones before they pass on, which is why I support the President’s decision today.”
