While other Arkansas politicians expressed hope that Fidel Castro’s death marks a fresh start in U.S.-Cuba relations, Sen. Tom Cotton on Saturday centered on the longtime Cuban leader’s afterlife.
"Fidel Castro created hell on earth for the Cuban people. He will now become intimately familiar with what he wrought,” he said in a statement.
Castro ruled communist Cuba for decades after he rode a revolution to power in 1959. He opposed and defied the United States frequently, especially as an ally to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. His brother, Raul Castro, Cuba’s current president, announced his death late Friday on state TV.
When the United States restored diplomatic relations with the Caribbean island in July 2015, Cotton, a Republican from Dardanelle, called it a “grave mistake,” citing “the Castro brothers' continued oppression of the Cuban people and their efforts to oppose U.S. interests.”
Cotton also opposed 2015 legislation that would allow Americans to “provide payment or financing terms for sales of agricultural commodities to Cuba or an individual or entity in Cuba,” the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported.
He said then that any kind of trade deal would benefit the Castros and not the Cuban people.
Republican Rep. French Hill of Arkansas’ Second District echoed Cotton in a Facebook post that called Castro a “brutal dictator” who tore families apart and took away the rights of Cuba’s people.
“History will not look down on this brutal dictator with kind regard -- and neither should we,” he wrote. “Today, I am hopeful that the Cuban people are one day closer to the type of freedom they deserve.”
Contrary to Cotton, Arkansas’ other senator, Republican John Boozman, was open to a trade deal with Cuba in 2015, saying the U.S. trade embargo hadn’t worked. He was optimistic on his Twitter account Saturday.
“I hope the death of Fidel Castro marks a new beginning for an American-Cuban partnership and brings light to democracy in #Cuba,” Boozman tweeted.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson was on the same page, tweeting that Castro’s death had opened a “freedom window for the oppressed Cuban people.” He said that freedom isn't guaranteed and the United States must “seize the moment.”
Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican representing Arkansas’ 1st District, also took to Twitter Saturday, calling Castro’s death “a sign of an opportunity for change.”
“Through my own visits to Cuba I've seen people ready for change,” Crawford tweeted. “With Fidel dead, America needs to help lead Cuba toward a better future.”
Last year, Crawford sponsored a bill that would allow Americans to extend credit to private agricultural businesses in Cuba, the Democrat-Gazette reported.
“[The United States] should continue to expand its trade relationship with Cuba to allow our private sector to help shape post-Fidel Cuba,” he tweeted Saturday.