Congress

South Florida Lawmakers React to Obama's Cuba Trip

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen spoke out Thursday against President Obama's planned trip to Cuba next month, calling the move "absolutely shameful" and "a slap in the face."

Ros-Lehtinen was joined by U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz Balart in a press conference Thursday morning. Prior to the conference, Ros-Lehtinen's office released a statement in which she condemned the planned trip.

"For more than 50 years Cubans have been fleeing the Castro regime yet the country which grants them refuge, the United States, has now decided to quite literally embrace their oppressors," she wrote.

Ros-Lehtinen went on to say that there has been no progress on human rights, and no improvement of conditions in Cuba since the thawing of relations began. In her statement, Ros-Lehtinen wrote that the president's visit "will only legitimize the Castros' repressive behavior."

Rep. Balart's office also released a statement condemning the trip, but calling it "hardly a surprise."

President Obama confirmed the visit Thursday on Twitter, and said the visit was part of an effort to "improve the lives of the Cuban people." He vowed to press the communist government on human rights and other policy differences.

"We still have differences with the Cuban government that I will raise directly. America will always stand for human rights around the world," Obama wrote.

White House deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes was expected to give details on the trip at a briefing Thursday afternoon.

The trip will take place March 21-22 and the President will be joined by the First Lady.

The trip will make Obama the first sitting U.S. president to set foot on the island in nearly seven decades. 

According to the State Department historian's office, President Harry Truman visited the U.S.-controlled Guantanamo Bay and its naval base on the southeast end of the island in 1948 and former President Jimmy Carter has paid multiple visits to the island since leaving office in January 1981. Not since President Calvin Coolidge went to Havana in January 1928 has a sitting U.S. president been to that city.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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