The Washington Post reports that Florida Democrat Bill Nelson and his New Jersey counterpart, Bob Menendez, are urging colleagues to not allow their staffers to go on an upcoming trip to Cuba.
The pair cite the case of a subcontractor who has been held in a maximum security prison since Dec. 3 and the recent death of dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo to argue against the trip.
"To have visits to Cuba in light of these deaths and human rights abuses sends the wrong signal to the Castro regime," they wrote in a letter to fellow senators.
The Post points out that Nelson went to Syria in 2006, "brushing aside similar Bush White House objections over things such as Syrian political prisoners and its alleged assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005. He also stopped in to see the Saudis, and he has visited with the Chicom leadership."
Related posts: