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The Republican representative María Elvira Salazar described it as "shameful" this Tuesday that two Democratic congress members traveled to Cuba to, in her words, "repeat the dictatorship's propaganda."
Salazar reacted this way to the five-day visit that Democratic representatives Pramila Jayapal (Washington) and Jonathan Jackson (Illinois) made to the island, which concluded last Saturday, marking the first documented in-person meeting of U.S. lawmakers with the regime since 2018.
"Let’s be clear: The United States is not responsible for the collapse of Cuba. Decades of failed and corrupt communist policies are," Salazar wrote on his X account.
The Cuban-American congresswoman also urged her Democratic colleagues to abandon the "propaganda photos" and work alongside Republicans to hold the regime accountable.
"Instead of photo shoots, they should work with us to hold the regime accountable and push for real change on the island, based on freedom, democracy, and American strength," he emphasized.
During their stay, Jayapal and Jackson met with President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, and members of the Cuban Parliament.
In their joint statement last Saturday, Democratic lawmakers described the energy sanctions of the Trump administration as a "cruel collective punishment" and an "economic bombardment" of the country's infrastructure, demanding immediate negotiations and the abandonment of what they called Cold War policies.
Díaz-Canel shared photos of the meeting on X the following day, denouncing the "criminal damage" of the embargo and the energy sanctions that, according to the Democratic congressmen, prevented the arrival of oil to Cuba for more than three months.
Critiques from the Republican side were not limited to Salazar. Congressman Carlos Giménez, the only legislator born in Cuba, accused Jayapal and Jackson of hypocrisy for meeting with the regime: "While Democrats go to Cuba to meet with the leaders of a communist dictatorship, Republicans support the people in their quest for a free Cuba."
From the Cuban opposition, leader José Daniel Ferrer also condemned the trip: "They go to Cuba to shake hands with the tyrant, to applaud tyranny, and to become accomplices of oppression, misery, and repression."
The episode unfolds against the backdrop of escalating tensions between Washington and Havana since Trump signed Executive Order 14380 in January, which declared Cuba an extraordinary threat to national security and imposed tariffs on countries that supply oil to the island.
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