Washington, Oct 16 (EFE).– The Democratic front-runner in next year’s U.S. presidential election, Hillary Clinton, backed the Obama administration’s decision to normalize ties with Cuba, but she expressed concern over the human rights situation on the Communist-ruled island.

In an interview with EFE Thursday in San Antonio, Clinton said the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba was “long overdue” and that she had advocated for that step as secretary of state in an effort to help Cubans gain access to “more democracy, more freedom and more economic opportunity.”

The former first lady traveled to that Texas city for a campaign event and picked up an endorsement there from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.

She said the thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations had been a carried out in a “very thoughtful way” but expressed concerned about “human rights problems” on the island.

The United States and Cuba restored full diplomatic ties and reopened their respective embassies in each other’s capital cities in July, seven months after U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro surprisingly announced plans to end more than a half-century of animosity.

“I’ve very supportive of what the president (Obama) is doing on Cuba,” she said.

“It has opened the door to the future in a way the embargo and not having relations could not,” the candidate said.

She further added she “would like to see the rest of the region now be more supportive of democracy in Cuba and standing up for the human rights of the Cuban people as we move forward,” while also expressing harsh criticism of the leftist government in Venezuela, Cuba’s close ally.

She said that if elected she would strive to end the embargo, though noting that a complete end to that measure requires congressional approval.

Clinton said, however, that Castro’s government needs to “provide more support for individual economic activity, to let the Cuban people be more connected to the outside world (and) to let more tourists and family members and businesses come” to the island.

She said she was confident the U.S. Congress could be convinced to completely lift the embargo “as long as the Cuban side is moving forward as well.” EFE