Did State Grant Visa to Dictator's Daughter [Mariela Castro]?

Capitol Hill Cubans

It seems that the State Department may have granted a visa to Cuban dictator Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela, to deliver a policy speech at the end of the month at the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) conference in San Francisco, CA.

In doing so, the State Department would be granting an exemption for the Cuban dictator's daughter from Presidential Proclamation 5377, which denies visas to Cuban nationals affiliated with that country's totalitarian regime.

Moreover, it throws a bucket of cold water on President Obama's Presidential Proclamation 8697 of August 2011, which supposedly sought to "close the gap" in granting visas to foreign nationals affiliated with human rights violators, and singling-out those responsible for "prolonged arbitrary detentions."

Raul Castro is the among the world's top perpetrators of "prolonged arbitrary detentions," averaging hundreds per month, including that of an American development worker Alan P. Gross.

And Raul's daughter, Mariela, is his #1 apologist.

So why grant her a visa (worst yet, an exemption) to deliver a policy speech, of all things?

Is there no accountability?