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US Free Trade to Strengthen Cuban Regime: Congressman

© AP Photo / Desmond Boylan, FileIn this Dec. 18, 2014 file photo, tourists take a ride in a classic American convertible car with the Cuban national flag painted on the trunk, in Havana, Cuba
In this Dec. 18, 2014 file photo, tourists take a ride in a classic American convertible car with the Cuban national flag painted on the trunk, in Havana, Cuba - Sputnik International
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US Congressman claims that Obama will only bolster Cuba's regime by opening up free trade relations with the island nation.

WASHINGTON, January 8 (Sputnik) — US President Barack Obama will only bolster Cuba's regime by opening up free trade relations with the island nation, US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher said in a statement.

"The idea that trade alone will soften the hand of a tyrant has not worked. In the end, the ruling clique [in Cuba] manipulates such trade so that their grip on power is strengthened," Rohrabacher said Wednesday. "I am a long-standing champion of the principles of free trade, but it must be free trade between free people."

Shamans holding posters of U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuba's President Raul Castro, perform a ritual of predictions for the new year at Agua Dulce beach in Lima December 29, 2014 - Sputnik International
The "Cuba Reset": Implications of Cuba Normalization
Rohrabacher, who is the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats, also denounced the Obama administration's approach of employing executive power and bypassing Congress to normalize relations with the Cuban regime.

"The president's covert manoeuvring to open relations with Cuba's Communist dictatorship was wrong and so was the way he did it," the congressman said. "There seems to be a pattern in the president's bypassing our democratic process to achieve his goals. Maybe that is what endears him to the Castro brothers."

In addition, the congressman indicated that the decision was untimely. Obama is "coming to the rescue of the Castro dictatorship," according to Rohrabacher, given that "Venezuelan and Russian subsidies for the regime have been evaporating as the price of oil drops."

The congressman said he will support congressional efforts to block Obama's "heavy-handed and wrong-headed," scheme, which "is not good for the United States, not good for the people of Cuba, and not good for the cause of freedom."

US President Barack Obama’s decision to normalize relations with Cuba is harmful to the United States: legislator - Sputnik International
US Legislator Says Obama’s Cuban Policy Change ‘Disastrous’
On December 17, President Obama announced that the United States was relaxing trade and travel restrictions and restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Since 1961, the United States had an embargo in place against Cuba due to Cold War antagonism between Washington and the Communist government in Havana.

Earlier on Wednesday US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen also released a statement criticizing Obama's Cuban policy change.

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