Story highlights Ted Cruz is blasting presidential Barack Obama for visiting Cuba

The Republican presidential candidate says it ignores political prisoners on the island nation

(CNN) As President Barack Obama arrived in Havana on Sunday Ted Cruz slammed the president's visit, calling it "so sad, and so injurious to our future as well as Cuba's, that Obama has chosen to legitimize the corrupt and oppressive Castro regime with his presence on the island."

In a Politico op-ed the Republican presidential candidate said the administration's actions have "[created] a channel for inside deals between large corporations and the Cuban military, which holds all the keys to the island's economy."

U.S.-Cuba relations are personal for Cruz, whose father was born and raised in Cuba. The Texas senator frequently speaks about his father Rafael's imprisonment during the pre-Castro Batista regime.

Cruz wrote that Obama's visit sends a message to political prisoners in Cuba that "the world has forgotten about you."

"There will be no mojitos at the U.S. Embassy for them," the Texas senator wrote, jabbing Obama's visit, which included a formal welcoming ceremony and a state dinner at the Revolutionary Palace.

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