At a tempestuous hearing Thursday, one House member after another criticized a growing campaign to lift the ban on American tourists traveling to Cuba. The move would reward a regime that oppresses its own people, lawmakers declared, pointing to the recent assault on Yoani Sánchez, a Cuban blogger and government critic, by suspected state security agents.

The beating showed that "the Cuban regime has not unclenched its fist," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), the senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"Now is not the time to change policy and start appeasing and funding the Castro clan," said Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), citing Sánchez's case.

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