TAMPA, Fla. — Members of Casa Cuba Tampa and Casa Venezuela Tampa Bay joined forces to send a letter to members of Tampa’s city council on Monday, expressing their disapproval of the city's call for a reversal of the Trump administration's current restrictions on travel to Cuba.

They wrote the letter in response to a resolution passed on June 13 by the Tampa City Council that called on the Trump administration to reverse its most recent travel restrictions to the island nation. 

The exile community was not pleased with the move.

“We all were very disillusioned. That’s why we had to write that letter,” said Casa Cuba Tampa spokesperson Rafael Pizano. 

The city council passed the resolution on the same day Cuban ambassador Jose Ramon Cabanas met with Tampa city council members.

“They billed this visit like the measures that were taken against Cuba were wrong,” Pizano said. “And we that have family, we that have things vested in those countries like family, these measures were something we favor.”

Rafael Pizano's father, Roberto, was a Cuban prisoner of war.

“They should have taken into account that there are lots of Cuban, Venezuelan, and Nicaraguan exiles that have lived here for years,” Roberto said. 

The Trump administration increased travel restrictions to Cuba as a way of pressuring their government for supporting the Maduro regime in Venezuela. 

Tampa is home to one of the largest Cuban exile communities in the U.S. 

Now, the Venezuelan community continues to grow.

All they want, they say, is a chance to be heard by elected officials. 

“They should call us, they should talk to us and maybe they can hear what we have to say about this regime,” said Norma Reno, president of Casa Venezuela Tampa Bay. 

One member of the Tampa City Council, Bill Carlson, responded to the letter with the following statement:

“I meet regularly with Cuban Americans to hear their experiences and concerns. Casa Cuba represents a tiny faction of that community. Their views do not represent the interests of the vast majority of Cuban Americans nor the almost unanimous support of the Cuban people for engagement with Cuba.

The Cuban people want Americans to support capitalism and economic freedom by traveling to Cuba. 

These new policies are mean-spirited and supported by a handful of wealthy people in Miami. They serve only to take away the hard earned rights and freedoms of American citizens while purporting to support freedom in another country.”

The groups hope to meet with city council members soon.