Senators Call For Solidarity With Protestors in Cuba

Senators returned to the Capitol this week where LPO asked them on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning about the weekend that saw rising protests on the streets of Cuba.

"President Biden is speaking very clearly that the [Cuban] people need to be listened to and need to be supported," Senator Ben Rae Lujan, a Democrat from New Mexico, told LPO on Monday afternoon outside the Senate chamber. "We're going to be working closely with this administration and what I appreciate is that you have President Biden, you have Senator Menendez, and Marco Rubio and we're all saying the same thing."

So I think that this may be a moment when we can all work together for the good of the people of Cuba and evaluate what steps need to be taken.

Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, told LPO, " I think the U.S. has demonstrated a real willingness to [lift the embargo] by normalizing relations down that path but the response from the Cuban government has been very disappointing."

"I applaud President Biden's strong statements of solidarity with the Cuban people," said Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat from New Jersey and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "I applaud him sending a message to the regime in Cuba that you should not use force or violence against peaceful protestors, something that the Cuban regime has done once again and done historically with peaceful protestors."

I think sending a message, not only of solidarity with the Cuban people, but that we seek to help the Cuban people but not those who oppress you.

LPO asked both Senators Lujan and Kaine if they had been briefed by the White House about the situation in Cuba. Both Senators said that they had not. Senator Menendez told reporters that he had spoken with President Biden briefly and hopes to have a longer call with him later in the day on Tuesday.

Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri echoed the sentiments of his Democratic colleagues when asked about the protests over the weekend in Cuba. "In Cuba right now," Blunt told LPO, "people have decide they are willing to take the risk that they're taking to step up and I think the United States should be very forward-leaning in encouraging them and discouraging the likely-repressive activities that the Cuban government will continue to follow."