Former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s resignation from the Senate this week will leave a noticeable gap behind on several foreign policy issues, but nowhere more so than on Cuba matters.
For years, Menendez had been the highest-ranking Democrat to favor hard-line sanctions measures toward Havana at a time when more members of his party favored an approach that focuses more on engagement.
The son of Cuban political exiles, Menendez throughout his more than 30-year congressional career had been adamant that there should be no relaxing of the 1962 embargo against Cuba, which critics argue has done little to shake the hold on power of the Castro regime while leaving the Cuban people economically poor and isolated.
