Controversy continues to swirl as another official from the Cuban regime is alleged to have been granted entry into the United States. Last month, Manuel Menéndez Castellanos landed in Florida to welcome retirement in Miami. Florida Republicans quickly responded by calling for the Cuban official to face expulsion. Florida Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart (R), María Elvira Salazar (R), and Carlos A. Giménez (R) are now sharing their concern over the second Cuban official to allegedly seek refuge in the United States.
This week, Florida Republicans joined forces to send a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, sharing their concern over reporters that a high-ranking operative of Cuba's dictatorial regime allegedly being granted entry into the United States.
In the letter, Reps. Díaz-Balart, Salazar, and Giménez highlight that they each represent "constituents directed impacted by the brutality of the Castro regime."
Sharing their "profound concern" over Cuban Lieutenant Colonel Luis Raúl González-Pardo Rodríguez allegedly entering the United States a few weeks ago, they question why he would be let in given that he has allegedly "participated in the heinous murder of Americans."
According to some reports and survivors, "Gonzalez-Pardo participated in the Brothers to the Rescue shutdown of 1996." This event "resulted in the murders of three American citizens and one legal permanent resident, respectively: Carlos Costa, Mario de la Peña, Armando Alejandre, and Pablo Morales." The lawmakers shared that "these humanitarians were working to rescue refugees at sea who were escaping totalitarian Cuba, and saved countless lives since the Brothers to the Rescue's founding."
Noting that "the families of these victims deserve justice," the lawmakers are calling for "an investigation int the vetting process that allowed González-Pardo into the United States, and whether he lied on his forms."
"It was an insult to them [the families of the victims] and a disgraceful travesty of justice that the Obama Administration released the one person who had been held accountable for their murders, Gerardo Hernandez, in a concession to the regime in Cuba," the Florida Republicans lamented.
