Mario Diaz-Balart Calls for Increased Sanctions on Castro Regime

U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., weighed in on Monday night as the Castro regime cracked down on democracy activists. The South Florida congressman called for increasing sanctions in response.

"The Castro regime has once again brutally arrested pro-democracy activist Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez, and his wife and fellow activist, Yris Perez, Diaz-Balart said. Repression in Cuba has increased exponentially despite repeated attempts from the Obama administration to appease the regime with relaxed sanctions and travel visas to Castro operatives. With the arrests of these and other courageous pro-democracy activists, and the unjustifiable imprisonment of U.S. aid worker Alan Gross, we must tighten sanctions against the Castro dictatorship by eliminating so-called people-to-people travel, strictly enforcing current sanctions with maximum penalties, and prohibiting visas to those who help the regime inflict human rights abuses.

I am calling on other pro-democracy advocates, human rights organizations, and our friends in the international community to condemn these arrests and call for immediate consequences to the brutal Castro regime, Diaz-Balart added. We cannot remain silent in the face of such egregious human rights abuses.