MIAMI, FL -- On the occasion of his visit to US Southern Command, President Trump met with Cuban resistance leader, Rosa María Payá, as well as other Cuban and Venezuelan pro-democracy leaders, to hear their testimonies about the evil crimes and atrocities of socialism.
Ms. Payá warned President Trump and the American people about how socialism destroyed Cuba and how the far left wants to do the same in the US:
"The communist regime imposed the culture of exclusion and discrimination against any Cuban with a divergent expression. They abolished our civil liberties, our freedom of faith and of speech. They tried to delete our history, our faith, and our culture. The Castro regime tied the hands of the Cuban people to make us poor and dependent. Socialism mutilates the human soul in order to control society."
Ms. Payá called for President Trump to indict regime officials and declare the Cuban Communist Party as a Foreign Terrorist Organization:
"Mr. President, I encourage you to indict Raul Castro, Miguel Diaz-Canel, and all top officials of the regime. And very importantly, I encourage you to designate the Cuban military, its intelligence services, and the Cuban Communist Party as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, because of their relation to crime and narco-terrorism threatening the region.
Rosa María Payá added:
"[Socialists] infiltrate societies to spread chaos, violence, hate, and division to destabilize their democratic governments, throughout the hemisphere and also here in the United States."
"Through the use of propaganda, the communist ideology has contaminated the minds and souls of young people in Latin America and also in the United States. It is time to tell them the truth."
Rosa María Payá captivated the President and the audience as she told the emotional and harrowing story of her father's assassination by the socialist dictatorship:
"This July 22nd will mark 8 years since my father, Oswaldo Payá, was assassinated by the communist regime. My father founded and led the Christian Movement for Liberation. He was a leader of the political opposition and he was also the moral leader of thousands and thousands of people who demanded the right to have a voice and participate to change the system."
"He was the most generous man I ever met and he was killed by the communist regime... because it was in fear of the faithful, in fear of the conviction of a silent majority awakening and demanding freedom."
She added:
"People are being detained, threatened, stripped of their cell phones, even physically assaulted and beaten up on the streets, taken to prison, simply for taking a photo or posting on social media."
Ms. Payá also expressed her appreciation for President Trump's support for the Cuban people:
"Thank you, Mr. President... for your friendship and for standing with us, the Cuban people, who want to be free to decide our own destiny. Thank you, Mr. President, also, for your historic actions to support democracy in Cuba, and to pressure the cruel communist dictatorship."
"I’m a freedom fighter, and there are many of us among Cuba, and at this table also. And I know that you, Mr. President, are a fighter for freedom in the United States and for freedom in the world."
Ms. Payá quoted her father as she honored the friendship between the Cuban and the American people:
"My father in a letter to the US Congress said that we Cubans want to be free and we want to be friends with the American people. Please accept these cufflinks with the coat of arms of the Republic of Cuba, as a symbol of the friendship between our two peoples and also as a symbol of our appreciation for your actions and your solidarity."
Ms. Payá encouraged President Trump to join her in commemorating July 22nd to honor the victims of communism in the Americas, and ended her speech with an invitation to the president: "I look forward to walking together with you very soon through the streets of a free Cuba."
