He will bring the daughter of a Cuban political dissident that was killed in a controversial car crash in 2012. Rubio pokes Obama with his SOTU invite

Sen. Marco Rubio will put his opposition to President Barack Obama’s Cuba policy front-and-center during Tuesday night’s State of the Union.

The Cuban-American Florida senator, who’s played point man for the GOP in standing against Obama’s plans to normalize relations with Havana, will bring the daughter of a Cuban political dissident who was killed in a controversial car crash in 2012.


In announcing that his guest will be Rosa María Payá, daughter of Oswaldo Payá, Rubio skewered Obama’s plans to toss aside Cold War-era barriers between Cuba and the United States. On Friday the Obama administration loosened several travel and trade restrictions, and on Saturday a delegation of six congressional Democrats traveled to Cuba to begin outreach between the two nations.

Obama’s “administration is heading to Havana this week to discuss giving the regime legitimacy and greater access to American dollars it will use to fund its machine of repression – the very machine that harassed Oswaldo Payá for years, eventually murdered him and pays hush money to potential key witnesses,” Rubio said.

The GOP senator also called into question the circumstances of Oswaldo Payá’s death. The prominent democratic activist was killed in what the Cuban government deemed a car accident, but Rosa María Payá wrote in December that “the Cuban government refuses to allow an investigation and has not given even a copy of the autopsy report to my family.”

Rubio said Obama should back an independent investigation into Oswaldo Payá’s death as the U.S. continues to build economic and social bridges to Cuba.

“I hope Rosa María Payá’s presence on Tuesday night will at least remind him that her father’s murderers have not been brought to justice, and that the U.S. is now, in fact, sitting at the table with them,” Rubio said.

First Lady Michelle Obama will bring Alan Gross, an American who was imprisoned in Cuba, to the State of the Union.