Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is facing backlash from her own party, as one of her former colleagues has objected to her recent remarks about the United States-Cuba embargo.
In typical form, Ocasio-Cortez called for “an end to the U.S. embargo and additional Trump-era restrictions that are profoundly contributing to the suffering of Cubans.” Former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL) bluntly replied, “No. This is not correct,” before condemning the “failed policies of a communist regime that has violated human rights, imprisoned & killed dissidents.” Mucarsel-Powell also said that the Cuba situation is “a matter of national security” that requires direct U.S. action.
No. This is not correct.
— Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (@DebbieforFL) July 16, 2021
It’s the failed policies of a communist regime that has violated human rights, imprisoned & killed dissidents.
Cuban ppl young & old are risking their lives to rise up, we must listen to them.
This is a matter of national security.
The US must act. https://t.co/Wne0crVV8w
When pressed by Twitter progressives to propose an alternative to ending the embargo, Mucarsel-Powell replied that the Cubans she’d spoken to had several main requests. Among their requests are reliable Internet access and the reinstatement of the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program, which from 2007 to 2018 allowed Cubans to obtain American work permits before becoming naturalized citizens.
I’ve been talking to Cubans here who are in contact with family members in the island, they’re asking for:
— Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (@DebbieforFL) July 16, 2021
- Internet for communication
- Flights so family can come into Cuba
- Family Reunification, reinstate Cuban Parole program
Mucarsel-Powell represented Florida’s 26th congressional district, which consists of southwest Miami-Dade County and the Florida Keys, from 2019 to 2021. She is the first Ecuadorian-born person to serve in Congress, having immigrated to the U.S. with her mother and three sisters at the age of 14.
In her quest for re-election last November, Mucarsel-Powell was defeated by Miami-Dade’s Republican mayor, Carlos Giménez.
This is not the first time that Ocasio-Cortez has publicly broken with the Democrats’ mainstream approach to foreign policy. In May, she called Israel an “apartheid state.” And in last week’s statement, she attacked President Joe Biden for defending the “absurdly cruel” Cuban embargo.
Biden reacted slowly to the protests in Cuba, which erupted on Sunday, July 11. Cuba’s communist government, on the other hand, responded swiftly and violently by cracking down on peaceful demonstrators and suspending Internet access for millions of citizens across the island.
Florida Democrats hope that expressing strong solidarity with Cuba’s pro-democracy movement will help win back Hispanics that the party lost to President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. But as long as progressives like Ocasio-Cortez seem to neglect the “root cause," communism, that is driving the unrest in Cuba, the GOP could paint Democrats as apathetic and expand on Trump’s Hispanic margins in the 2022 midterms.