Several Cuban-American lawmakers are decrying a State Department decision to grant visas to a troupe of Castro-backed Cuban artists who are scheduled to appear at the Kennedy Center.

They are also asking Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to consider denying the visas before the two-week festival begins on May 8. It runs through June 3.

Many of the artists who are scheduled to appear at the festival, “Artes de Cuba: From the Island to the World,” are apologists for the Castro regime, making the show an extension of the Cuban government;s propaganda machine, the lawmakers argue.

The lawmakers also criticized the Kennedy Center’s decision to showcase Cuban-government backed films during the festival because the island’s repressive Communist government has spent decades brutally suppressing independent expression.

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