Phil Ammann
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is demanding President Barack Obama explain the exact terms behind Cuba’s promised release of 53 political prisoners, completed on Monday as the start of renewed relations with the United States.
Rubio, a prospective 2016 presidential candidate, continued to press the president on the conditions under which former political prisoners were released.
The discharge is seen as an important step toward normalizing diplomatic relations with Washington D.C.
Rubio, a Cuban-American son of political refugees, has blasted changes in U.S.-Cuba relations announced by Obama last month. He has called renewed relations a “victory for oppressive governments,” not just in Cuba, but worldwide.
On Tuesday, the Miami Republican sent a letter to Obama urging the president to answer uncertainties surrounding the release. Rubio insists U.S. policy toward Cuba must center on ending human rights abuses committed by the regime of Fidel Castro and his brother Raul.
“Cuban activists report that many of the people on the list had already been released months prior to your announcement on December 17, in one case, more than a year earlier,” the letter says. “Others had already served the bulk of their sentences and were already due to be released.”
One political prisoner had been released and subsequently re-arrested, beaten and released again, Rubio says. Some human rights groups report many of the 53 prisoners were released conditionally, either with charges pending, on probation or with the threat imprisonment if they continue publically calling for freedom for the Cuban people.
“I urge you to ensure that U.S. policy going forward is devoted to ending the regime that has committed these abuses,” Rubio added, “not strengthening it through half measures and incomplete negotiations.
“The goal of U.S. policy should be to ensure that there are no more political prisoners in Cuba.”
The letter is available online here and below:
