With the Obama administration reopening the American embassy in Havana on Friday, two Republican presidential candidates, who worked up the Florida political ladder, expressed their opposition this week. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry represented the U.S. at the flag raising in Havana as the embassy was reopened.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., now running for the Republican presidential nomination, came out swinging on Friday morning, insisting the Obama administration was offering a “birthday present for Fidel Castro” by presenting a “symbol of the Obama administration’s acquiescence to his ruthless legacy” in reopening the embassy.
“U.S. policy has changed, but Cuba has not,” Bush said. “It remains an unyielding dictatorship, a tragic example of the folly of communism, and an affront to the conscience of the free nations of the Western Hemisphere.
“The accommodation of the Castro regime comes at the expense of the freedom and democracy that all Cubans deserve, but Secretary Kerry’s visit is especially insulting for Cuba’s dissidents,,” Bush added. “That courageous Cubans whose only crime is to speak out for freedom and democracy will be kept away from the official ceremony opening the U.S. Embassy is yet another concession to the Castros.
“We need an American president who will work in solidarity with a free Cuban people. If I am elected president, I will reverse Obama’s strategy of accommodation and appeasement and commit to helping the Cuban people claim their freedom and determine their future, free from tyranny,” Bush continued. “Standing up for fundamental human rights and democratic values should not be an afterthought to America’s Cuba policy, it should be its guiding principle.”
One of Bush’s chief rivals for the Republican presidential nomination also took aim at the Obama administration for refusing to invite Cuban dissidents to the reopening. From his perch as chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., went on the attack earlier this week against Obama.
“This is a new low for President Obama and a slap in the face by this administration to Cuba’s courageous democracy activists,” Rubio said. “Cuban dissidents are the legitimate representatives of the Cuban people and it is they who deserve America's red carpet treatment, not Castro regime officials. What a pathetic policy President Obama has embarked on that shuns Cuban dissidents like this, yet has welcomed Castro regime officials to the White House.”
Rubio, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, has been a leading critic of Obama’s normalization efforts.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, came to Miami at the end of last month to express her support for normalizing relations with Cuba. During her time at the State Department, Clinton backed ending the Cuban embargo.
"We must decide between engagement and embargo, between embracing fresh thinking and returning to Cold War deadlock," Clinton said in the Miami speech. "The choices we make will have lasting consequences, not just for 11 million Cubans but also for American leadership across our hemisphere and around the world."
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
