[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 27281]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         IBERO-AMERICAN SUMMIT

  (Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, our allies in the hemisphere are 
raising their voices on behalf of freedom and democracy on the enslaved 
island of Cuba. The Presidents of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Argentina, 
Chile, and Costa Rica have announced that they will not be attending 
the Ibero-American summit to be held this month in Cuba. They do not 
want to legitimize the subjugation of the Cuban people any longer.
  In his announcement, in fact, President Rodriguez of Costa Rica 
emphasized that ``the Ibero-American summit is an act of profound 
political meaning in which the consolidation of the democracy and 
political development of our countries should always be promoted 
together with the full respect of human rights.'' He referred to his 
September letter to Castro where he stated that far from becoming 
better, the situation of human rights and democracy has actually 
worsened in recent months in Cuba.
  May the other democratic leaders invited to the summit also find the 
courage to acknowledge the truth and support the Cuban people and not 
their oppressor.

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