U.S. lawmakers back from Cuba Slammed for Ignoring Dissidents

The dueling news conferences illustrate the looming fight over the decades-old embargo, which critics say is a relic of the Cold War but supporters say should remain until Cuba improves its human rights record.

WASHINGTON (MCT) - Two former Cuban political prisoners along with congressional supporters of the U.S. embargo against Cuba on Thursday lambasted a Congressional Black Caucus visit to Havana as overlooking the plight of political dissidents on the island.

Republican Reps. Christopher Smith of New Jersey and Frank Wolf of Virginia said they had been trying to visit with political prisoners but had twice been blocked from visiting Cuba. They were filing a third request Thursday.

"The Cuban government routinely denies lawmakers who have criticized its human rights record any access to the country itself," Smith said. "But for members of Congress who signal they will be docile, it rolls out the red carpet."

The news conference came two days after a delegation led by Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat and chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, returned to Washington lauding Cuban leaders Raul Castro and Fidel Castro for openness. The delegation, which spent five days in Cuba, didn't meet with dissidents, saying that it first needed to start "a discussion to be able to talk about the issues Afro-Cubans are raising."

Smith, however, charged that by not raising human rights issues, the delegation sent the wrong signal to the regime.

"When the tragic plight of political prisoners is ignored, suppressed, devalued or trivialized by visiting politicians," he said, "the bullies in the gulags are given a free pass to inflict pain."

In a statement, Lee said, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but by any objective standard our current policy toward Cuba just hasn't worked.

"Simply put, it's time to open dialogue and discussion with Cuba," she said. "It's time to talk to Cuba. I am convinced, based on the meetings which were held, that the Cubans do want dialogue, they do want talks and they do want normal relations with the United States of America. And I believe that it's in the United States' best interest to do that."

Lazaro Miranda and Felix Cifuentes, two Afro-Cubans who said the regime had imprisoned them, criticized the lawmakers for not seeking out the opposition.

"They didn't get the real picture, because they were not looking for the real picture," said Cifuentes, who spent nine years in Cuban prisons. "What that delegation saw was out of Fidel's eyes."

The dueling news conferences illustrate the looming fight over the decades-old embargo, which critics say is a relic of the Cold War but supporters say should remain until Cuba improves its human rights record.

President Barack Obama is expected soon to ease travel and gift restrictions on Cuban-Americans but has said that he supports keeping the economic embargo against the island. Two bills in Congress would lift all travel restrictions against the island.

Smith said that Congress and the White House had a "moral obligation" before easing sanctions against Cuba to make sure that the government released political prisoners, held fair elections and allowed a free press.

"To the Cuban government: free the political prisoners, respect human rights and don't be so afraid to issue Mr. Wolf and me a visa," he said.

The Cuban American National Foundation, which backs the embargo, is calling on Obama to push for change from within on the island by increasing support for Cuba's fledgling civil society, increasing "people-to-people exchanges" and "targeted bilateral and multilateral diplomatic efforts."

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© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.