Hialeah Gardens—Several members of Florida’s congressional delegation joined House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) at the famed Assault Brigade 2506 Museum to commemorate the 2 year anniversary of the anti-Castro, anti-Cuban government protests by the Cubans on the Island and in the exile community.
Rep. McCaul, reiterated several times during the roundtable discussion with the members of Congress and several members of the Cuban exile community, including one individual who fought in the Bay of Pigs invasion, that he stood in solidarity with the plight of the Cuban community and considered himself Cuban.
While Rep. McCaul spoke of his experiences dealing with the Biden administration and past administrations on Cuba. McCaul pivoted direct questions about Cuba and the exile community to Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R), Maria Elvira Salazar (R), and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Rep. Diaz-Balart, who chairs the State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee and sits on the Appropriations Committee, spoke on the millions of dollars he helped allocate to help Cubans communicate better, and “to expand within Cuba and for the Cubans to communicate among themselves and outside of the island.”
Diaz-Balart stated that some of the initiatives he has appropriated funds for gave “not gotten a lot of cooperation from the administration.”
Rep. Wasserman Schultz, who represents a similarly Hispanic-heavy congressional district as Diaz-Balart, echoed much of what her colleague said in regard to the situation in Cuba, but also emphasized that the roundtable meeting was a show of solidarity for an issue that was not about Republican or Democrat, but about standing against an oppressive regime.
“Despite everything you’ve seen over the past few years, I maintain that the July 11th protests were a turning point for the Cuban democracy movement, don’t let anyone tell you differently,” said Rep. Wasserman Schultz. “ We need to make sure we lift the Cuban people and undergird their passionate desire that will ultimately be achieved.”
Rep. Waltz, who served in the U.S. Army as a Green Beret, reiterated the bipartisan message Reps. Wasserman Schultz and McCaul spoke about.
“This isn't a Republican issue. This isn’t a Democrat issue. This isn't a South Florida or Florida issue this is an American issue and the thing that was clear today is that if you we care about basic human rights and basic decency whether it's the Uyghurs being oppressed in China whether it's the people being brutalized by Russia whether it's the people being brutalized by Maduro in Venezuela there's a common theme here,” said Rep. Waltz
The only freshman congressman at the event was Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the “Sneaker Caucus” in the House of Representatives, highlighted the fact that Communist China’s and Russia’s ongoing partnership with the Cuban regime was nothing less than a “national security issue” that could not be ignored.
“And we really do have to educate the American people and our colleagues,” said Rep. Moskowitz. “If you care about Ukraine. If you care about Taiwan. If you're worried about Russia and you're worried about China, then you have to be worried about what's happening. It is a national security issue and we have to treat it as such.”
Since taking office, President Joe Biden has hesitated in lifting sanctions and travel restrictions placed the Cuban regime by the Trump administration.
During his term in office, then-President Barack Obama actively sought to “normalize” relations with Cuba, lifting several long-standing sanctions placed against the Castro regime. South Florida Democrats have sided with Republicans in support of keeping the Trump-era sanctions against Cuba in place.
