Malliotakis says Cuomo’s trip to Cuba is a mistake

April 21, 2015 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis says Governor Andrew Cuomo’s trade mission to Cuba won’t help impoverished people in that country. Photo courtesy Malliotakis’s office

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Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis, whose mother Veralia left Cuba in 1959 to escape the Castro regime, is highly critical of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s trade mission to that country, charging that the idea of promoting trade will fall flat.

“I do not understand the purpose of this trade mission or see any concrete benefit for the State of New York, aside from perhaps small agricultural trade with the Castro regime for its monthly food rations. Due to the dual currency system, the Cuban people possess little to no purchasing power,” Malliotakis said in a statement. “There is the Cuban Peso, the currency the government pays its citizens, and the Convertible Peso, the currency in which most goods are denominated and sold. The average Cuban worker earns 250 pesos a month, the equivalent of USD $10. However, most stores, whether touristic or not, sell goods in the much stronger Convertible Peso. It is for this reason that many Cubans rely on their family residing outside of Cuba, as mine relies on me to provide the basic essentials such as aspirin, shaving razors, and shampoo.”

Malliotakis (R-C-Bay Ridge-Staten Island) had earlier expressed her disapproval when President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. government would take steps to normalize relations with Cuba.

Officials who wish to have closer ties with Cuba do not understand the lives of average Cubans, according to Malliotakis, who visited her mother’s homeland on a visa in 2009. She described the situation there as dire.

International trade deals will not help the Cuban people, she charged.

She predicted that “formal recognition of the Cuban government will do nothing to improve conditions” and that “acknowledgement of the Castro regime as a legitimate representative of its people will only benefit the regime itself, and not its citizenry.”

Besides, said Malliotakis, there are other ways to boost New York businesses.

“The Tax Foundation has once again ranked New York 49th out of all 50 states with regard to a business-friendly tax climate. If Governor Cuomo’s goal is to help New York businesses grow, then he should instead be working towards an improvement in our business climate here at home so that we can better compete with other states,” she said.

Malliotakis also said the U.S. should worry about Cuba’s willingness to allow Russia to build a foreign intelligence base 90 miles from Florida, the spreading of communism to Venezuela and throughout South America, Cuba’s support of Iran’s development of nuclear technology, and its 40 years of providing a safe haven for JoAnne Chesimard, a fugitive who was convicted of murdering a New Jersey State Trooper in 1973 and fled to Cuba.

Cuomo, leading a delegation of business leaders, arrived in Cuba on Monday.

Upon arriving at Jose Marti Airport, Cuomo was greeted by Josefina Vidal, director general of the U.S. division at Cuba’s Foreign Ministry. Cuomo met with Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade Rodrigo Malmierca and later spoke at a business roundtable meeting between New York and Cuban industry leaders, according to the governor’s official website, www.governor.ny.gov.

Following the business roundtable, the governor took a walking tour of Old Havana and met with students from the State University of New York (SUNY) who are studying in Cuba as part of an exchange program.

“As the door begins to open between the U.S. and Cuba, we want New York businesses to be first out of the gate when it comes to building trade partnerships and establishing a strong position in this new market,” Cuomo said in a statement.