Cuban PAC blasts trip (by CBC to Cuba) as 'embarrassment'

From TheHill.com

By Ian Swanson
Posted: 04/08/09 12:10 PM [ET]

The Democrats who met with Fidel Castro represent “a fringe” in Congress that still sees the former dictator as a romantic revolutionary, the leader of a hard-line group said Wednesday.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, a board member with the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee, blasted Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and six other Democrats for traveling to Cuba and meeting with Castro.

“It’s an embarrassment and it gives a bad name to the Congressional Black Caucus,” Claver-Carone said of the trip. Several of the lawmakers are CBC members.

The Cuba Democracy PAC has given hundreds of thousands in political contributions to Democrats and Republicans in Congress as part of an effort to maintain stringent trade and travel restrictions with Cuba. The group in recent years has focused on outreach efforts to the Democratic freshman classes of 2004, 2006 and 2008.

Claver-Carone said 95 percent of those who favor lifting trade and travel restrictions with Cuba believe doing so would bring about democracy in the island nation. “I respect that but I think they’re wrong,” he said.

Five percent of those who want to lift the embargo “really think he’s [Castro] a revolutionary hero,” he said. “This group is that 5 percent.”

Besides Lee, the seven-member delegation was composed of Reps. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), Mike Honda (D-Calif.), Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) and Laura Richardson (D-Calif.). The group met with both Fidel Castro and his brother Raul, who is now the country’s president.

The group has come under criticism for not meeting with dissidents during the six-day trip. Lee at a press conference on Tuesday said she had met with dissidents on other occasions, and that the purpose of the recent trip was to have discussions with Cuban leaders about normalizing U.S.-Cuba relations.

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), a native of Cuba, told CNN that any member visiting Cuba should “have the courage” to meet with those raising concerns about the government’s human rights violations.

Claver-Carone argued that Cubans of African descent face discrimination in Cuba, and said members of the Congressional Black Caucus should have raised this issue with the country’s leaders, who he said oversee “one of the most racist regimes in the world.”

Source: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/cuban-pac-blasts-cbc-trip-as-embarrassment-2009-04-08.html

Other articles detailing Congressional Black Caucas (CBC) visit to Cuba:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/myriam-marquez/story/989534.html