Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, turned back claims by Democrats who followed Black Lives Matter and blamed the decades-long U.S. embargo on Cuba for sparking the recent historic protests.
Rubio spoke from the Senate floor Tuesday, where he contended that people who called the embargo cruel either “don’t know what they’re talking about,” or are “liars.” “There is only one blockage in Cuba and it is the blockage that the regime has imposed on its people,” Rubio said.
Earlier this month, pro-democracy protesters took to the streets across the island nation to call for human rights and basic necessities.
Black Lives Matter posted a statement last week that blamed the U.S. embargo for the country’s instability and credited the Cuban government for historically granting “Black revolutionaries” asylum.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was silent on the issue until Thursday when she issued a statement expressing “solidarity” with the Cuban people. She also called for the end of the 60-year-old embargo which she claimed, in part, “profoundly” contributed to the suffering of Cubans.
