Menendez challenges Cuba policy during hearing

Menendez challenges Cuba policy during hearing
Ledyard King and Nicole Gaudiano, USA TODAY 7:05 p.m. EST February 3, 2015

WASHINGTON – Sen. Robert Menendez grilled a State Department official
Tuesday about why a deal to normalize relations with the Castro regime
didn't include the return of a woman who fled to Cuba after killing a
New Jersey state trooper.

The New Jersey Democrat said Cuba's decision to grant asylum to Joanne
Chesimard, convicted of first-degree murder in the trooper's 1973
killing, is among reasons the country should remain on the list of state
sponsors of terrorism. Menendez noted that the U.S. government is
reviewing Cuba's inclusion on the list in response to a request from the
Castro regime.

"Isn't it true that the Castro regime provides sanctuary to Joanne
Chesimard, who is on the FBI's list of Most Wanted Terrorists?" Menendez
asked Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of state for Western
Hemisphere affairs, during a hearing before the Senate Foreign Affairs
subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.

"It is, sir," Jacobson replied.

Asked whether the Castro regime provides sanctuary to members of foreign
terrorist organizations, Jacobson said, "That has certainly been the
case in the past."

Administration officials told the Senate panel President Barack Obama's
controversial moves to engage the repressive Castro regime in Cuba will
do more than 50 years of embargoes and sanctions have done to help the
island's residents and U.S. interests.

Cuban dissidents are divided about the administration's actions, said
Tomasz Malinowski, assistant secretary of state for human rights and
labor told the Senate Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western
Hemisphere.

"But this uncertainty — after decades of absolute depressing certainty
that nothing can change in Cuba — carries with it a sense of
possibility. Our task is to seize that opportunity," he said.

Malinowski's words did little to appease senators who are most opposed
to the administration's actions. Those senators include Menendez,
top-ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, and GOP Sen.
Marco Rubio of Florida, who chaired Tuesday's hearing.

Both lawmakers are the sons of Cuban immigrants. They repeated earlier
criticisms that, in exchange for any recognition of the Castro regime,
the administration should have demanded a guarantee of human and
political rights, as well as resolution of U.S. property and business
claims in Cuba worth billions.

"Eighteen months of secret negotiations have produced a bad deal for the
Cuban people," Menendez said. "While it may have been done with the best
of intentions, in my view we compromised bedrock principles for
virtually no concessions."

Menendez submitted for the record a Dec. 22 letter from the State
Troopers' Fraternal Association of New Jersey to Obama, urging him to
demand Chesimard's return before any further consideration of
establishing diplomatic relations with the Cuban government.

Menendez also submitted a resolution by the New Jersey State Association
of Chiefs of Police opposing normalizing relations with Cuba until
Chesimard is returned.

Tuesday's debate showed the divisions in Congress over what to do about
Cuba.

Menendez's comments criticizing the administration followed remarks from
a fellow Democrat, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, lamenting that the
U.S. "has spent the past few decades pursuing a policy that hasn't worked."

And Rubio is getting no support from fellow Republican Sen. Jeff Flake
of Arizona, who last week introduced bipartisan legislation that would
lift all travel restrictions for Americans who want to visit Cuba as
tourists. Doing so, Flake said, would help spread democracy in the country.

"It's not an acknowledgment that things are better in terms of human
rights or democracy," Flake said. "It's a recognition that we hope that
we can improve the situation."

Tuesday's hearing, featuring prominent dissidents on both sides of the
issue, was the first since the president's announcement. Rep. Chris
Smith, R-N.J., will chair a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing
on Thursday that is expected to bring up Chesimard's case.

Smith, who chairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human
Rights, and International Organizations, said the hearing will examine
the "still-deplorable state of human rights in Cuba," echoing complaints
by Menendez.

Source: Menendez challenges Cuba policy during hearing -
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/politics/2015/02/03/menendez-cuba-policy/22823419/