The latest offense committed by President Barack Obama, according to Republican opponent Mitt Romney, is failing to immediately reject an endorsement from Mariela Castro.
Castro, the daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro and niece of Fidel, made the endorsement at a gay rights conference in California where she was speaking, the Miami Herald reported.
“I would vote for President Obama. I think he’s sincere and speaks from the heart,” she said.
The Romney campaign wants Obama to reject that endorsement.
“President Obama should disavow the endorsement of the daughter of Cuban dictator Raul Castro,” Romney campaign adviser Alberto Martinez said in a statement.
“It is galling that an envoy from a Communist regime would come to our country and lecture the American people on who to vote for while the regime refuses to hold free and fair elections and systematically violates the human rights of its people,” said Martinez. “The decision by the Obama Administration to welcome Mariela Castro to our shores — a decision that has received rightful criticism from both Republicans and Democrats — continues to be an egregious affront to the people of Cuba and those who love freedom everywhere.”
Castro’s presence in the United States has drawn significant criticism on its own. Some opponents of the Castro regime said that the U.S. should not have granted Mariela Castro a visa.
“It send a horrible message to those courageous pro-democracy activists on the island who are fighting to have their voices heard to grant a visa to current dictator-in-chief Raul Castro’s daughter, so she can further distort their reality,” said Mauricio Claver-Carone, executive director of Cuba Democracy Public Advocacy.
“She’s currently the regime’s most prominent spokesperson and has been traveling the world defending her family’s repressive dictatorship, calling dissidents ‘despicable parasite’ and defending the taking of American hostage Alan Gross,” he added. “The Obama Administration should not be facilitating Castro family propaganda tours until Cuban democracy activists are also given the opportunity to freely state their views and American hostage Alan Gross is reunited with his family.”