[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7835]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     ON ORIOLES-CUBA BASEBALL GAME

  (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. Madam Speaker, it is ironic that as NATO forces are 
bombing the Butcher of the Balkans, the Clinton administration is 
cozying up to the Butcher of the Caribbean, Cuba's Fidel Castro.
  In the aftermath of the tragedy in Colorado as we search for answers 
and discuss role models and values, it is ironic that the United States 
is preparing to play ball with the regime that violates the human 
rights and civil liberties of its people.
  Monday's game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban team will 
send a message to our children that America's pastime can also be an 
instrument for dictators; that money, power and individual interests 
are more important than freedom and democracy for the oppressed people 
of Cuba.
  The May 3rd game, as the one played in Cuba, will be a political and 
public relations home run for Fidel Castro but it will be a strikeout 
for political prisoners, for human rights dissidents and the Cuban 
people as a whole.
  Let us send the right message to our young people and to the 
international community as a whole that the U.S., its institutions and 
its symbols will not be accessories to the crimes committed by the 
Castro regime and that we will not be manipulated into covering up 
those crimes.

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