WASHINGTON At the same time that a US envoy is in Havana this week negotiating with Cuba to establish a US embassy there, Sen. Marco Rubio (R) of Florida is countering that “we’re not going to fund a fake embassy.” At a Monitor breakfast on Wednesday, Senator Rubio, the lead Republican voice in opposition to the president’s opening diplomatic relations with the communist nation, said there is a “huge threshold” that needs to be crossed before funding can go forward or an ambassador appointed. “A real embassy means your diplomats have freedom of movement. A real embassy means you can send anything you want into that embassy – as many computers as you want,” Rubio said. “You can send diplomats in there [and] these diplomats are allowed to travel the country wherever they want.” Think you know Latin America? Take our geography quiz.Think you know Latin America? Take our geography quiz. A “real” ambassador, he added, should be able to move freely about and “engage in civil society.” He said he would take up these concerns with the administration. Rubio is an influential figure in the newly GOP-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which handles ambassador nominations. He also is the new chairman of the key subcommittee on Western Hemisphere affairs. He has a strong ally in Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who is now the ranking member on the foreign affairs committee, and who, like Rubio, is also the son of Cuban immigrants.u
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 23:42:18 +0000