Free Cuba

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Speaker, I rise today to support and encourage the brave men and women of Cuba.

Last week we saw unprecedented images and videos from across Cuba. Tens of thousands of Cubans took to the street. They took to the street not because of COVID or vaccines or the embargo but because they demand their inalienable rights. They demand freedom. They chant: ``Libertad.'' They chant: ``Patria y vida.'' And they converged on the Communist Party headquarters responsible for 60 years of misery, abuse, and torture of the Cuban people.

Cubans have rejected the failed ideology forced upon three generations--the failed ideology of Marxism that has brought suffering to hundreds of millions around the world, the failed ideology that deserves to be sent to the ash heap of history once and for all.

As Communists often do, they concocted a conspiracy theory to explain the people's protests. The Communist dictator Miguel Diaz-Canel even claimed it was a U.S. plot. This is what Marxists do, of course. They lie. They will lie, they will commit violence against their own people, and they will try to suffocate the calls for freedom.

But this movement will not be silenced. It cannot. It mustn't. For too long this once flourishing island has suffered under Communist rule, and now the calls for freedom must be heeded: freedom from oppression, freedom from abuse, and freedom from tyranny. The downfall of this regime has been a long time coming. No more is it patria o muerte--country or death--but as the people across Cuba know, it is patria y vida--country and life.

As Americans--as a people who have inherited the greatest gifts of freedom the world has ever known--we must speak with one voice against the evils of Marxism. We must speak truth, a truth that not enough Americans are used to hearing. Instead, we have American politicians who openly advocate for the very same Marxist ideology that Cubans would die to escape from. This ignorant and foolish flirtation with Marxism must end, and we must make it clear that we will always support freedom-loving people around the world.

Our message will be one of empowerment: empower the brave Cuban people as they begin to throw off the chains of Communism and seek their inalienable, God-given rights of life, liberty, personal property, and the right to pursue their happiness.

So to the men and women of Cuba, I say this:

(English translation of the statement made in Spanish is as follows:)

We see you. We hear you. We are with you. Let us no longer shout homeland or death but homeland and life. And begin to build what we dream of. What they destroyed with their hands.

Te vemos. Te oimos. Estamos con ustedes. Ya no gritemos patria o muerte sino patria y vida. Y empezar a construir lo que sonamos. Lo que destruyeron con sus manos.

Madam Speaker, to the Communist regime in Cuba, I say this: Your lies are exposed, your foundations are shaken to the core, and your days are numbered.

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