    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [August 6, 1993]
    [Page 1347]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Statement on Meeting With Mario Chanes de Armas
    August 6, 1993

        I am honored to welcome to this house and to this country one of the
    heroes of our time. Mario Chanes de Armas was freed from prison in Cuba
    after having spent three decades as a political prisoner of the Castro
    regime. He is a living testimony to the unbending will to strive for
    liberty and dignity.
        He sacrificed the best years of his life to the ideal that he and
    his fellow citizens will be free. The full might of dictatorship was
    brought to bear against him. Yet, it could not break his spirit. It is
    men and women like him who have built our land into a beacon of freedom
    and hope for the oppressed peoples of the world.
        Our meeting today is a symbol to those brave Cubans who remain in
    prison on political charges or who struggle daily, risking their lives,
    for the twin causes of human rights and democracy. Our message to these
    courageous people is simple: The United States will not rest until all
    of the peoples of this hemisphere enjoy the fruits of freedom and
    democracy.