Human rights activist calls out couple for recent getaway.
Jay-Z and Beyoncé have raised the tempers of some members of the Cuban-American community.
The superstars chose to vacation in Cuba to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary last week and are now being blasted for their "insensitivity" to human rights violations allegedly rampant in the country.
Mauricio Claver-Carone, the Washington, D.C., director for the US-Cuba Democracy PAC, a group whose aim is to fight for democracy in Cuba, tells TMZ the power couple should have done their homework before bringing international attention to the island nation where America has banned tourism.
"There are women getting beaten on a daily basis, women who are being jailed for no reason. People are fighting for their freedom. It’s extremely insensitive," says Claver-Carone.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are also criticizing the Carters for choosing dictator-led Cuba as their vacation spot and even penned an angry letter to President Barack Obama questioning why they were granted visas to the banned country.
Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart have sent a joint letter to the Treasury Department official responsible for policing the embargo to demand to be told who approved the Carters' travel and for what purpose. The letter points out that "tourist activities" are covered by the ban and complains that the trip was used by the Castro regime for propaganda purposes.
"The restrictions on tourism travel are common-sense measures meant to prevent U.S. dollars from supporting a murderous regime that opposes U.S. security interests at every turn and which ruthlessly suppresses the most basic liberties of speech, assembly and belief," the politicians wrote.
Bey and Hov haven't yet commented on the incident.
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(Photo: AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
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