Cuban-American Lawmakers In NJ Oppose Renewing Relations

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — High-ranking Cuban-American lawmakers in New Jersey are speaking out against the United States plans to start talks with Cuba on normalizing full diplomatic relations between the nations.

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Robert Menendez, whose parents came to New York from Cuba just before he was born, called the release of Alan Gross "a moment of profound relief" for Gross' family.

But he assailed the deal, saying "President Obama's actions have vindicated the brutal behavior of the Cuban government."

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, a Cuban native who emigrated to the U.S. when he was 11, said Wednesday he fears normalizing relations will strengthen the Cuban regime and "cement its permanency."

Prieto says he knows "first-hand" the Cuban regime's poor record on human rights and its resistance to democracy.

(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Check Out These Other Stories: