Lech Walesa in Miami: Changes will soon come to Cuba
BY LUISA YANEZ
lyanez@MiamiHerald.com
Former Polish President and Nobel Peace Laureate Lech Walesa, a key
player in helping bringing down communism in Eastern Europe, said
Tuesday that there will soon be a political change in Cuba.
``It's going to happen,'' Walesa said, speaking through an interpreter.
``But the world must be ready for the changes that will bring about,''
he cautioned.
Walesa, the guest speaker at a Tuesday $100-a-plate luncheon of the
Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba at the Freedom Tower, said the rest
of the world needs to see the real Cuba -- and not the island as ``a
tourist attraction.''
A union organizer and founder of the Solidarity Movement, Walesa led a
nonviolent revolt against Poland's communist system in the 1980s. He has
been working with the Cuban American National Foundation on how lessons
from his movement can best be applied to support the work of civil
society groups in Cuba.
``What aspects of his movement can be applied to our struggles in
Cuba?'' asked Omar Lopez Montenegro, executive director of the
foundation for human rights.
Francisco ``Pepe'' Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National
Foundation, who attended the luncheon, said, ``There are many Lech
Walesas'' inside Cuba.
``What's needed,'' Hernandez said, ``is for the world to join and
support the struggle of the Cuban people, just as it did during Walesa's
fight against the Polish government. World support is very important.''
Walesa said he believes ``our generation has the best chance to bring
about change in the world'' and help push for moral governments.
``Values are more important than tanks and rockets,'' he said.
At the event, Walesa was presented with the keys to the city and the county.
Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado explained to Walesa the fitting significance
of the Freedom Tower. ``Thousands of Cuban exiles escaping communism
were processed here,'' he said of the tower, which is now owned by Miami
Dade College.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Rebeca Sosa presented him with a key and thanked
him. ``God bless you for fighting for the right of democracy,'' she told
Walesa.
All proceeds from the luncheon will benefit the efforts of the Cuban
human rights foundation and the Lech Walesa Institute Foundation.
Lech Walesa in Miami: Changes will soon come to Cuba - Cuba -
MiamiHerald.com (3 February 2010)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/1459862.html
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