Sen. Jeff Flake is one of the only Republicans to support President Barack Obama’s decision to relax sanctions against Cuba.
The senator from Arizona also has his own idea to hit the country’s fraternal dictators where it hurts: “Make ’em deal with Spring Break.”
Flake, who’s taken some flak — along with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — from fellow Republicans for his support of Obama’s reengagement with Cuba, called in a Facebook post for the U.S. to outright end its travel ban on Cuba.
While Obama’s actions will allow more Americans to get to Cuba for academic, humanitarian and other purposes, rowdy spring breakers didn’t make the cut this time around.
In the post, Flake dismissed critics like Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio who say Obama threw away a big chunk of the only leverage the U.S. has to flip the communist and authoritarian policies of the Cuban regime. Instead, Flake called for more engagement and U.S. influence that could hurt the Castro brothers’ hold on power.
“Sure, the Cuban Government wants the revenue that comes with increased travel, but, being communists, they fear the corrosive influence unfettered travel brings,” Flake wrote on Facebook. “The default should be freedom — the freedom for Americans to travel wherever they what.”
And it’s not the first time Flake has called for spring break in Cuba, making the same argument nearly two years ago before relations with Cuba shifted. And back then, Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, whose parents immigrated from Cuba, slammed Flake’s spring break suggestion.
Proponents of the new accord with Cuba say more travel and engagement will help the U.S. spark political reforms and encourage democratization, and Flake explained that he believes ending the travel ban would be the U.S.’s first “‘get tough’ policy” on Cuba.
“Wanna punish the Castros? Make ’em deal with Spring Break,” Flake wrote.
