Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen slammed singer Beyoncé and her rapper husband, Jay-Z, for their vacation to Cuba, saying it doesn’t “send the right message to the suffering Cuban people.”
“They want freedom, and Beyoncé and Jay-Z are there to have a good time. They should go somewhere else,” the Republican representative said on CNN Tuesday.
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The celebrity couple had permission from the Treasury Department to travel to the Caribbean island, long under embargo by the United States, as a cultural and educational trip, White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a press conference.
“Under this administration, we have eased the ability to travel to Cuba for those purposes but the decisions at the individual level are made at the Treasury Department,” Carney said.
Ros-Lehtinen, who was born in Cuba, said although there are legal ways to visit the island, the couple should have chosen somewhere else to spend their fifth wedding anniversary.
“There are a lot of better places they could go where they’re not feeding a monstrous regime.”
Reuters reports that the hip hop power couple is visiting Havana for four days and so far has visited Old Havana, toured an art school, heard Cuban music at an entertainment venue, and enjoyed Havana’s nightlife. They were also treated to a performance by a children’s theater group.
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