Earlier this month, news spread across social media that a top Cuban official from the communist party had landed in Miami to welcome retirement. Manuel Menéndez Castellanos, wearing a mask, a cap, and a pink t-shirt, entered Miami International Airport and was swarmed with reporters questioning his arrival. Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R) also questions his arrival, and she intends on his stay being short. Rep. Salazar has sent a letter to the Secretary of State, urging that he revoke the top cuban official's visa.
Rep. Salazar directed the letter to Secretary Antony Blinken, copying Benjamin Ziff, the Chargé d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, demanding that he revoke the visa of the ex First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba for Cienfuegos.
In the letter - deeming it a "concerning issue" - Rep. Salazar cites Menéndez Castellanos' ten years of service in the Communist Party of Cuba. She writes that Castellanos was part of a group "comprised of Castro's right-hand men around Cuba and was tasked with spreading fear among his opponents and advancing his cruel policies."
In turn, she highlights that having the luxury of living in freedom in the United States should be reserved for the victims of communism and not for the oppressors. "People want to leave Cuba because of the system that Menéndez Castellanos worked to perpetuate," so "he should have to spend the rest of his life in that system."
In calling for his visa to be revoked, Rep. Salazar questions "why would we allow a central regime figure who fought against American interests to get a visa to move to the United States and enjoy the fruits of freedom?"
The communist official did not take questions from reporters.
Secretary Blinken has not responded to the request to have the communist official kicked out of the country.
