mr president who would have thought twenty years ago when the air of europe was thick with the brick dust of falling walls and with cries of freedom that the red flag would still today be flying over havana and that fidel castro would be dying peacefully in bed on that sultry caribbean island
says my countryman sir thomas more death is the only way to get rid of tyrants
two things have kept the communist regime in place in cuba
first the wrong-headed american blockade which has allowed castro and his regime to blame all the privations of their countrymen on foreign imperialism rather than on the economic mismanagement of communism and secondly the indulgence of some in europe including some in this house who have a disgusting double standard whereby they excuse human rights abuses and the denial of democracy in cuba on the grounds that it is good at producing doctors and ballerinas
i hope that this house will grow up and that some in this house will see beyond their days as students wearing che guevara t-shirts
the time has come for constructive engagement with the democratic forces in cuba
history will absolve us
