This month, South Florida erupted in controversy after a top official from Cuba's communist government traveled to Miami for retirement. Manuel Menéndez Castellanos was the First Secretary of the Communist Party in Cienfuegos along with other top positions with the government. Florida Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart (R), Maria Elvira Salazar (R), and Carlos Giménez (R) have directed a letter to the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security for allowing Menéndez Castellanos into the country.
Menéndez Castellanos arrived in South Florida earlier this month, donning a face mask, a baseball cap, and a pink shirt while being wheeled out of Miami International Airport in a wheel chair. News of his arrival began to circulate, and widespread condemnation soon followed.
In a letter directed to both Secretary Antony Blinken and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the Republican House members were joined by Florida Senators Rick Scott (R) and Marco Rubio (R) in condemning the Biden-Harris officials for allowing Menéndez Castellanos into the U.S.
The lawmakers shared their "profound disgust regarding reports that a high-level, longtime Cuban Communist Party operative managed to gain the specific privilege of U.S. entry."
"Press reports indicate that Manuel Menéndez Castellanos was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, the Central Workers' Union in 1972, was First Secretary of the Communist Party in Cienfuegos (1993 and 2003), and a deputy in the National Assembly for years, as well as a member of Fidel Castro's notorious 'coordination and support team,'" the lawmakers further detail.
As such, the lawmakers share their outrage, noting that "an individual with a role in oppressing the Cuban people for decades was permitted the extraordinary privilege of U.S. entry so that he could spend his retirement in freedom and comfort."
Rep. Salazar also sent a letter to Secretary Blinken this week, urging him to revoke Menéndez Castillo's visa and send him back to Cuba.
