Bush’s Cuba Speech Right on Target (Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen)

President Bush has once again demonstrated that his government is right on track in dealing with the dying Castro regime. His call for the military and security forces to choose between supporting the people or continuing to allow the Castro brothers to brutalize them is a clear testament that this Administration believes that the future of Cuba lies with its people and not with the current regime.

We have said time and time again that the U.S. will not accept a new face oppressing Cuba and denying the Cuban people the inalienable rights that the rest of the world takes for granted; the President’s remarks now makes this point as concise and plain as it can be said.

President Bush understands that life will not improve for Cubans under the communist form of government that rules the island and that nothing will change in Cuba if we sought to accommodate the regime for the sake of stability. Stability comes from the ballot box and from having a free and transparent form of government that respects the rights of its people and whose guiding light is to advance the economic and social conditions of the people, not to perpetually keep itself in power for the sake of power.

I once again thank President Bush for having the best interests of the oppressed Cuban people in his mind and his heart. My brothers and sisters on the island are tired and weary of the abuses and the hunger they endure because of the disaster that Cuba has become due to Fidel Castro. I ask them to continue to endure and to struggle because the end of the regime is near and liberty and freedom are the future of Cuba.