House Speaker Leaves Tottering Police State Early to See Celtics in DC

House Speaker Ronald Mariano is jetting out of Cuba a day ahead of schedule in order to attend the White House celebration of the Boston Celtics' 2024 NBA championship. Gov. Maura Healey and Senate President Karen Spilka previously announced their plans to attend the Celtics bash, as has Treasurer Deborah Goldberg.

Mariano will be joined by Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz, according to a House spokesperson.

The pair have spent the better part of a week traveling in Cuba with a delegation of other top House Democrats including Franklin-Medway Rep Jeff Roy, exploring issues like the life sciences, climate resiliency, and the Cuban health care system, which the World Health Organization ranked as the fourth best in Latin America after Colombia, Chile, and Costa Rica. Those three  are rated  22nd, 33rd, 36th respectively and Cuba 39th in the world,  though the ranking incorporate survey data the veracity of which may be hard to determine in the case of given Cuba given the island nation's lack of personal freedoms.

US government-funded Freedom House classifies Cuba as being "Not Free", and notes that "Cuba is the only country in the Americas that consistently makes Freedom House's list of the Worst of the Worst: the World's Most Repressive Societies for widespread abuses of political rights and civil liberties."

Celtics Beckon

"Upon receiving an invitation from the White House to attend the Celtics championship celebration, Speaker Mariano and Chairman Michlewitz will leave Cuba one day earlier than originally planned, attend the celebration tomorrow, then return to Massachusetts," the spokesperson told the News Service on Wednesday afternoon.

--SHNS/Franklin Observer