The U.S. government announced Wednesday morning that Pres. Barack Obama would like to ease some of the travel and trade restrictions against Cuba that have been in place for more than 50 years, since the early regime of dictator Fidel Castro. However, local public officials largely criticized the measure, saying Cuba is still repressing its people, harbors terrorists, and represents a threat to democracy. Hudson County is home to thousands of Cuban emigrants and refugees, and their relatives.
Ultimately, Congress will decide whether to approve the change.
U.S. Rep. Albio Sires, a West New York native, said on Wednesday that he was “disappointed” in Obama’s announcement.
“What should be a joyous moment to celebrate the overdue homecoming of [prisoner] Alan Gross today has been marred by the actions undertaken by the administration to secure his release,” he said. “The president’s announcement today detailing plans for a loosening of sanctions and initiating discussions to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba is naïve and disrespectful to the millions of Cubans that have lived under the Castros’ repressive regime; and the thousands of human rights defenders that have fought tirelessly and at times with their lives to bring about democratic change to Cuba.”
He added, “While I may welcome the release of over 50 political prisoners, little has been said for the countless others that remain inside a Cuban prison or the fact that the same 50 plus prisoners freed today could very well be imprisoned again tomorrow for exercising the same human rights of free speech.”
Sires serves as the ranking member of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere within the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in Congress.
“This is a very emotional and personal issue for me.” – Vincent Prieto
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U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, a Union City native who is of Cuban descent, said, “Today’s policy announcement is misguided and fails to understand the nature of the regime in Cuba that has exerted its authoritarian control over the Cuban people for 55 years. No one wishes that the reality in Cuba was more different than the Cuban people and Cuban-Americans that have fled the island in search of freedom. In November, the Cuban Commission for Human Rights & National Reconciliation (CCHR) documented 398 political arrests by the Castro regime. This brings the total number of political arrests during the first eleven months of this year to 8,410.”
He added, “To suggest that Cuba should be taken off the list of state sponsors of terrorism is alarming while Cuba harbors American fugitives, such as Joanne Chesimard, who is on the FBI’s list of Most Wanted Terrorists for murdering New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster and despite Cuba’s colluding with North Korea to smuggle jets, missile batteries, and arms through the Panama Canal.”
Secaucus resident Vincent Prieto, the Assembly house speaker, said he came to the United States from Cuba as a boy with his mother in search of the American dream. He does not want restrictions lifted.
“This is a very emotional and personal issue for me,” he said. “I lived under the regime that, for all intents and purposes, still exists in Cuba. I know first-hand the regime’s poor record on human rights. I’ve seen with my own eyes the regime’s resistance to democracy. I fear normalizing relations will do nothing more than strengthen the regime and cement its permanency.”
West New York Mayor Felix Roque, who is also Cuban, was in agreement.
“I join the many Cuban Americans and anti-Communist supporters in expressing my immense disappointment on President Obama’s decision to establish relationships with Cuba,” he said. “This act by President Obama disregards the suffrage of the many who experienced the grave consequences of Communism.”
One supporter
Freeholder Jose Munoz had a different take. “It finally happened and I support President Obama’s bold move in lifting the embargo to Cuba,” he said. “This is the peaceful, bloodless change that so many impoverished Cubans have been waiting for and equally important, it paves the way towards democracy.”