Three U.S. senators are of Cuban descent, and all three put out statements over the weekend that spoke of the tragedies of Castro's six decades in power.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday that nothing had changed in Cuba inasmuch as Castro's younger brother, 85-year-old Raul, has been in charge for nearly a decade.
"His death is a historical milestone, but Cuba today is governed exactly the same way it was governed 48 hours ago," Rubio said. "The younger Castro is 85. His No. 1 interest is making permanent this system of government, because they have an extended network of family and friends who depend on this for their income. They want this system of government to become the ideal way to run an island nation."
Rubio said he planned to work with President-elect Donald Trump to roll back many of President Barack Obama's changes to the Cuban embargo.
"I'm just against unilateral changes for which we get nothing in return for our country or on behalf of the Cuban people," he said. Changes "should be specifically tied to something that we're doing over here, not to mention freedom of the press, freedom of information."
Rubio's parents came to the United States in the 1950s. The senator grew up in predominantly Cuban West Miami.
On Saturday, Rubio had harsh words for Castro, saying history will remember him "as an evil, murderous dictator who inflicted misery and suffering on his own people."
"Fidel Castro seized power promising to bring freedom and prosperity to Cuba, but his communist regime turned it into an impoverished island prison," Rubio said in a news release. "Over six decades, millions of Cubans were forced to flee their own country, and those accused of opposing the regime were routinely jailed and even killed."
In an editorial in Politico, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called himself "the son of a Cuban who was beaten and tortured by [Fulgencio] Batista's regime, and my aunt was likewise brutalized by Castro's thugs."
Cruz's father, Rafael, migrated to the United States from Cuba in the 1950s. He worked as a dishwasher while teaching English and then put himself through the University of Texas.
"Fidel Castro's death cannot bring back his thousands of victims, nor can it bring comfort to their families," Cruz wrote on Facebook. "Today we remember them and honor the brave souls who fought the lonely fight against the brutal Communist dictatorship he imposed on Cuba."
Earlier this year, Cruz wrote in Politico that the United States should stand with Cuban dissidents: "In Cuba the Castros have been the implacable enemies of the United States for more than half a century. It is in our interests to make common cause with the brave souls who oppose them."
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., was born in 1954 to immigrant parents. His mother was a seamstress; his father was a carpenter.
Menendez's rise from poverty to power culminated in the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From that seat, he was a frequent Castro critic.
"Since he took power over half a century ago, Fidel Castro proved to be a brutal dictator who must always be remembered by his gross abuses of human rights, systemic exploitation of Cubans, unrelenting repression, and stifling censorship upon his own people," Menendez said Saturday in a statement.
"Fidel's oppressive legacy will haunt the Cuban regime and our hemisphere forever. Under the Castros' reign, Cubans have not had one single free election. Not one Cuban has been allowed to fully own his or her own company. Not one legitimate trade union has been allowed to be organized. Not one peaceful protest has occurred without being brutally squashed by the regime," he said. "This was Cuba's reality when the Berlin Wall fell, and it continues to be its reality in 2016."
A Section on 11/28/2016