Mariela Castro, a gay rights activist and daughter of communist Cuban dictator Raul Castro (weird, right?), has been granted a visa by the U.S. Department of State.
She’s allegedly here to attend some elitist academic love-in down San Francisco way. At home, she’s pushed for key items in the international “gay rights” agenda including the legalization of sex reassignment surgery (which is also now provided gratis, i.e. paid for by the government, in Cuba since 2008 thanks to her father).
Gotta love communism! And since she’s been an advocate for same sex policies much longer than Obama (and under objectively harsher conditions), you would expect the American Left to embrace her with open arms. Right?
Wrong. Political calculations typically trump moral consistency in the public sphere, so not everyone on the Left is down with Hilldawg’s decision, Save Jerseyans. In fact, Cuban Americans are incensed on both sides of the aisle; they view her as a shill for her father (and aging uncle’s) evil regime. U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), himself a Cuban American, issued a statement picked up by The Miami Herald in which he labels Castro’s daughter “a vociferous advocate of the regime and opponent of democracy, who has defended the regime’s brutal repression of democracy activists.”
Menendez’s presumptive November challenger Joe Kyrillos wasn’t far behind:
The issuance of this visa sends the exact opposite message to the liberators fighting for freedom in Cuba. Allowing Raul Castro’s daughter to come into our country has the potential to undo years of efforts to end the tyranny of the Castro regime and bring freedom to the Cuban people. She is a virulent supporter of what her father and uncle stand for- oppression and control. By opening our doors to her- it’s as if we are opening our doors to tyranny and oppression and shutting the door on all those fighting for our shared ideal – freedom. This is a terrible decision, and it should be reversed immediately.”
Neither Kyrillos nor Menendez picked this issue out of a hat, Save Jerseyans.
As we’ve discussed before at Save Jersey, New Jersey (and Northeast Jersey in particular) is home to one of the nation’s largest Cuban American populations. There are approximately 140,000 ethnic Cubans living in the New York City metro area and roughly 80,000 Cuban Americans in the Garden State; that’s works out to about 1 in every 100 New Jersey residents with ties to Cuba.
Hispanics could actually be a key “swing vote” in 2012 for New Jersey candidates, especially if U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) lands on the GOP ticket as Mitt Romney’s VP candidate. Don’t think it’s impossible just because Menendez is himself of Cuban ancestry. In 2004, George W. Bush of all people garnered almost 44% of New Jersey’s Hispanic voters! Christie nabbed just 32% five years later but hey, presidential cycles are always different beasts. Anything is possible.
Therefore, you can expect Cuban issues to remain alive and well in this year’s NJ Senate Race regardless of whether Ms. Castro makes any return visits.
