Nassau GOP lawmakers seek support for Cuban protesters
Nassau County GOP lawmakers and officials Thursday called for solidarity with "Cuban freedom fighters" who protested Cuba's communist regime as part of the island nation’s largest political uprising in a generation.
Waving Cuban flags and holding signs reading "Free Cuba" and "Americans for Cuba," more than three dozen elected officials, candidates, and area activists rallied at The Cuban restaurant in Garden City.
"We stand together with the Cuban freedom fighters who have been calling out for liberty," said Mairén Torres, chairwoman of the New York State Republican National Hispanic Assembly who has extended family living in Cuba. "A regime that for 62 years has tortured, killed and imprisoned its citizens seeking liberty and a better life has come to an end."
With Cuba enduring its worst economic crisis in decades, thousands of residents took to the streets of Havana last week to protest food and water shortages, power outages and rising inflation. The Cuban government responded by disrupting phone and internet service and arresting hundreds of protesters, according to activists and human rights groups on the island.
On Thursday, the Biden administration sanctioned a key Cuban official and a government special forces unit, citing human rights abuses in the wake of protests. But Torres said the sanctions don't go far enough. She wants to see President Joe Biden convene a meeting of the United Nations concerning the "humanitarian crisis" in Cuba.
Thursday's rally was not lacking in political overtones.
Among those in attendance were Hempstead Town Councilman Bruce Blakeman and former State Sen. Elaine Phillips, the Republican candidates for Nassau county executive and comptroller, respectively, and GOP Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin, who is seeking reelection in November.
"It is so important we stand for the people of Cuba who yearn for freedom and liberty and it's important for our country to support them," said Blakeman, who will challenge Democratic County Executive Laura Curran in November. "There is only one party in this nation that is behind the Cuban people and that is the Republican Party."
Clavin said the Cuban people are looking for support from Americans.
"They are asking for us to stand up," he said. "It is right we do it. That's who we are."
Democratic officials hosted a similar rally Monday in Freeport in support of the Cuban protesters.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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