9 Democrats 1 Republican
By Susan K. Livio | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 30, 2016 at 3:45 PM, updated January 31, 2016 at 2:22 AM
TRENTON — Angry Cuban exiles in New Jersey are demanding state Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto condemn a trip 10 state lawmakers quietly made to Cuba this week, an action they say legitimizes that government’s oppressive regime.
Woodcliff Lake Mayor Carlos Rendo said Friday that American tourism “props up a murderous regime with every penny they spend in Cuba.”
“I would like to see every Cuban American legislator come out strongly and condemn this trip,” said Rendo, who was born in the communist country.
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Prieto (D-Hudson), who fled the island with his mother when he was 10 years old, told NJ Advance Media he was reluctant to criticize his colleagues for making the trip on their own time. But he wanted to be clear they did not go representing the state.
“I did not sanction the trip,” Prieto said. “They never went as a delegation representing the Assembly of New Jersey.”
Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer), said he and the nine other legislators had good reason to make the four-day trip that ended Friday.
“After Obama said he wanted to ease the (diplomatic) restrictions, we wanted to see for ourselves what Cuba is all about,” Gusciora told NJ Advance Media Saturday. “We wanted to see how we can make things better in both of our countries.”
Gusciora said it isn’t fair for anyone to implicate Prieto. Everyone paid their own way and made arrangements directly with the tour company run by the Cuban government, he stressed. The trip cost $2,000, he said.
“It’s disappointing some people in the Cuban-American community want to stifle our rights of free speech and free association,” he said.
Besides Gusciora, the lawmakers on the trip included Assemblymen Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen), Tim Eustace (D-Bergen), Paul Moriarity (D-Gloucester), John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester), Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi (R-Bergen), Cleopatra Tucker (D-Essex), and Sheila Oliver (D-Essex), and state Sens. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) and Nia Gill (D-Essex).
The Senate Majority Office “did not pay for the trip, nor did it make arrangements,” spokesman Luke Margolis said.
Prieto said that in December, Johnson asked whether the Assembly Majority Office would pay for the trip. The speaker said he refused. He said on Friday that he learned that the lawmakers had actually made the trip from Rendo and other Cuban leaders who saw a story about it in a government-owned news website, Diario de Cuba on Thursday.
Like other Cuban-American leaders who have been critical of the Obama administration’s decision to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, Prieto said he explained to Johnson he did not want to do anything that could be perceived as supportive of the Castro government, which unilaterally seized property and jobs and jailed dissidents in 1959.
“For me it’s an emotional thing because I lived it,” Prieto said.
“In a a three-day trip, you will not be able to understand the struggles of the people,” he added.
Cuba’s decision to continue harboring fugitive Joanne Chesimard is another reason he could not sanction the visit, Prieto said. Chesimard broke out of prison in 1979 after she was convicted in the shooting death of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973.
While he isn’t pleased by the trip, Prieto said he was stopping short of condemning it.
“As I said I would not authorize them going as a delegation but I cannot say anything about them going as U.S. citizens. That is one of the freedoms we have here that is not available to the Cubans in Cuba.”
During the trip, the New Jersey lawmakers repeatedly pushed Cuban officials to turn over Chesimard and other American fugitives, Gusciora said. “They seemed to ignore it,” he said.