The Cuban-American delegation in Congress is strongly criticizing the U.S. government for an “enormous mistake” in granting a visa to Raul Castro’s daughter, who plans to attend a conference next week in San Francisco.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Miami, posted video on YouTube in both English and Spanish calling the U.S. State Department's decision to issue a visa to Mariela Castro Espin "shameful."

“It sends a terrible message to the democratic movement in Cuba, to those brave people in Cuba who every single day resist and speak out against the tyranny of the Castro brothers,” Rubio stated.

“Meanwhile, we are granting a visa to his daughter, who is not just his daughter. She is an arm of his regime, an outspoken supporter, and is coming to the United States to spread their anti-American propaganda. It is shameful that they would grant that visa.”

Espin, 50, a sexologist who heads Cuba’s government-funded National Center for Sex Education, is expected to discuss Cuba’s positions on sexual issues on May 24 at the Latin American Studies Association conference in San Francisco.

U.S. Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, along with representatives Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami and Albio Sires, D-New Jersey, were also quick to criticize the visa approval.

“It is reckless and dangerous to welcome high-level agents from a state sponsor of terrorism with an extensive espionage network to peddle their anti-America propaganda on U.S. soil, Diaz-Balart, Ros-Lehtinen and Sires wrote in a joint release.

"While the Cuban people struggle for freedom against increasing brutality at the hands of Castro’s thugs, the Obama administration is greeting high-level agents of that murderous dictatorship with open arms."

Rivera in his own release called the decision "extremely disappointing."

“Not only is Mariela Castro Espin the head of Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education, but she is the daughter and niece of Raul and Fidel Castro respectively, and a vocal advocate of her father and uncle’s tyrannical regime. The State Department should not be putting out the welcome mat for officials from countries that have officially been designated as state sponsors of terrorism.”

Most of the delegation referred to Presidential Proclamation 5377, which prohibits non-immigrant visas to Cuban nationals that are officers or employees of the government or the Communist Party of Cuba.

“Ms. Castro is a vociferous advocate of the regime and opponent of democracy, who has defended the regime’s brutal repression of democracy activists,” Menendez stated in a release. “Neither the United States government nor the Latin American Studies Association should be in the business of providing a totalitarian regime, like the one in Cuba, with a platform from which to espouse its twisted rhetoric.

“Moreover, while an American is being held hostage in a Cuban prison I believe that issuance of a visa to Ms. Castro sends the wrong message to the regime and to Cuba’s struggling opposition movement.”

Alan Gross, 63, was arrested Dec. 3, 2009, and sentenced to 15 years in prison for acting against Cuba’s independence and territorial integrity while working as a subcontractor on a U.S. Agency for International Development project to bring Internet access to Jewish Cubans.

Asked about the visa application during a press briefing on Tuesday, a State Department spokesperson replied that the agency doesn’t address individual visa applications.

“We do not discuss specific details of individual visa cases; visa records are confidential under U.S. law,” the spokesperson stated, according to the State Department. “The rules and procedures for adjudicating visa applications are established under U.S. law and Department regulations. Each visa request is reviewed on a case-by-case basis. There is no blanket ban on issuing visas to Cuban government officials.”

Presidential Proclamation 5377, issued Oct. 4, 1985, by President Ronald Reagan, allows the State Department to grant exceptions for purposes of doing business at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, the Cuban Mission to the United Nations in New York and "in such other cases or categories of cases as may be designated from time to time by the secretary of state or his designee."



Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.