It was a routine meeting of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Chairwoman Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) was conducting a hearing on U.S. relations with Cuba when Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) interrupted the hearing to speak about her desire for the U.S. to reestablish relations with the island nation.
Salazar was having none of it. Lee is not a member of the Committee, and according to long-standing House rules, there would have to be a unanimous vote of Committee members to allow her to speak.
“Today, I exercised my authority as Subcommittee Chairwoman to not allow an off-Committee Member to spread communist propaganda during my Cuba hearing,” Salazar wrote. “Members are not entitled to join any Committee proceedings without full consent of the Committee Members.”
“Barbara Lee tried to disrupt an important discussion about the Biden Administration’s lenient policies toward the Cuban regime,” Salazar continued. “Barbara Lee is a communist sympathizer who was a personal friend to Fidel Castro, has visited Cuba 21 times, and has been a mouthpiece for the Cuban Regime since 1977.”
A typical Democrat, Lee whined about having her viewpoint suppressed.
“She’s trying to silence me,” Lee said. “And what her move was today demonstrated [is] that she really doesn’t believe in democracy. She believes in only her point of view; she does not believe in the inclusion of different points of view when we talk about Cuban policy.”
As she was being asked to leave, Lee criticized Rep. Salazar for perpetuating the same authoritarian policies she criticized the Cuban government for. “I am an African American woman with a point of view,” said Rep. Lee. “We’re in a democracy those points of views are allowed. And you are doing exactly what you say the Cuban government is.”
Things went even further on social media. Rep. Salazar called the political veteran a “communist sympathizer” and accused her of being friends with Fidel Castro. Rep. Salazar also said that since Rep. Lee was not a member of the committee she had a right to kick her out for her “disruption.”
Lee was trying to advocate for a bill to help the Cuban private sector. The only problem, according to Cuban democracy advocates, is that a private sector in Cuba doesn't exist. It's a regime ploy.
The hearing in this congressional subcommittee comes at a time when both Cuban-American lawmakers and leaders of the exile community in Miami have publicly warned that the regime has created what they describe as a false private sector with these micro and small businesses (MIPYMEs), controlled and serving the dictatorial elite.
Just hours before the start of this hearing, regime-affiliated media in Cuba posted interviews with representatives of these businesses on their social media, including Olympic champion in 110-meter hurdles, Dayron Robles. They criticized the holding of
this session and sought to debunk claims that they were a false private sector.
It seems a little strange that Lee would try to crash the committee hearing at almost the same time that the Cuban regime began a media campaign in favor of what Lee was advocating.
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