Cruz silent on Rusesabagina; what does that say to Texans?

On Aug. 27, 2020, the Rwanda government kidnapped San Antonio resident Paul Rusesabagina and has imprisoned him there ever since.

This would be outrage enough — but Rusesabagina is also a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, bestowed by fellow Texan George W. Bush. Rusesabagina is a global humanitarian hero whose actions to save 1,268 people during the Rwandan genocide are portrayed in the 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda.”

You’d think a foreign government abducting a fellow Texan, torturing him, trying him before a kangaroo court that obliterated his every legal right while his captors withhold medicines vital to his health, sent by his family, would have our elected representatives demanding his release. In fact, many have.

In the U.S. House, Texas Democratic Reps. Joaquin Castro, Lloyd Doggett and Al Green have joined with Texas Republican Reps. Michael McCaul, Tony Gonzales, Roger Williams and Ronny Jackson at the vanguard. In the Senate, Republican John Cornyn organized a pointed, bipartisan, bicameral letter of protest holding Secretary of State Antony Blinken accountable for Rusesabagina’s life. Cornyn’s letter drew signatures from two platoons of senators and House members. But not Sen. Ted Cruz.

Constituent service is a primary job of a U.S. senator. Texans might wonder: What would happen if a foreign country kidnapped you and threw you in solitary confinement? Would Cruz lift a finger to help?

Rusesabagina is guilty only of speaking out against repressive governments. He’s put his life on the line for those beliefs. Why does Cruz, the nominal champion of liberty and freedom who routinely holds up State Department nominees, fail to pressure Biden’s State Department for the safe return to Texas of a winner of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom?

One of us, Zoellner, had a brief phone call with a Cruz staffer, then a series of nonreplies to every follow-up email. In contrast with his Texas colleagues, Cruz has neither reached out to the family nor signed Cornyn’s letter.

The other of us, Israel, presided in a St. Mary’s classroom April 6 when two men who work with the Rwandan Embassy in Washington electronically deceived their way in to harass Paul Rusesabagina’s wife, son and daughter. Recently at the Tobin Center downtown, the Rwandan ambassador to the United States called on “Professor Israel” by name, though they’d never met — then tried to laugh off the direct question: Who authorized her embassy’s spying on the class? The ambassador circled the question for minutes without answering until her moderator cut it off. The Rwandans bugged the phone of another of Paul’s daughters and sent agents to intimidate her. The St. Mary’s incident galvanized Cornyn.

Texans don’t agree about much these days except liberty and freedom, but about that we’re nearly indivisible. If we’re kidnapped or thrown into a foreign prison, we’d expect a U.S. senator to defend our freedom. If Cruz won’t defend Rusesabagina, what does that say about his commitment to liberty and freedom, his ability to stand up to foreign dictatorships, and his concern for Texas constituents who are lesser known?

Bill Israel is former chair of the Department of Communications Studies and former associate dean at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. Tom Zoellner is co-author of Paul Rusesabagina’s 2006 book, “An Ordinary Man.”