Washington - Today, US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) released the following statement on reports of possible easing of Cuba travel restrictions:

"This is not time to ease the pressure on the Castro regime -- they have made no significant concessions that should be rewarded. In the last year, a fellow American has suffered and languished in a Cuban cell for the mere fact that he promoted the free exchange of information among Cuba's repressed religious groups. To the horror of the rest of the world, the Castro regime allowed a Cuban dissident to die during his pro-democracy hunger strike. And during the past year another hunger striker has gone on life support, while the 52 political dissidents the regime said it would expelled abroad have not been freed."

"Promoting travel and wide-spread remittances will give the regime a much-need infusion of dollars that will only allow the Castro brothers to extend their reign of oppression and human rights violations. Furthermore, the big corporate interests behind the push to relax the embargo couldn't care less about whether the Cuban people are free or not -- they only care about padding their profits by opening up a new market. Those who lament our dependence on foreign oil because it enriches regimes in places like Iran should not have a double standard when it comes to enriching the Castro regime, simply because Cuba offers white sand beaches 90 miles from our coast."

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