President Trump shared a meaningful message on Wednesday in honor of Cuban Independence Day. In a presidential statement released by the White House, Trump praised the spirit of the Cuban people and honored the country’s historic liberation from the Spanish Empire.
“Like the American patriots who cast off tyrannical rule 250 years ago, Cuba’s founding generation rose against the Spanish Empire’s subjugation to claim the same birthright our citizens enjoy today: the right of a free people to govern themselves,” President Trump said. “Across generations, the Cuban people have demonstrated an unyielding devotion to the cause of freedom and a resilience of spirit that no regime—past or present—has been able to extinguish.”
While praising the people of Cuba for their devotion to liberty, the president also denounced the current regime for thwarting the original political vision of Cuba and denying liberty to its citizens.
“The regime in Havana today is the direct betrayal of the nation their founding patriots bled and died for. For nearly seven decades, the island’s communist government has violently dismantled political freedom, denied its people fair elections, viciously silenced dissent, and strangled the Cuban economy into a state of collapse,” President Trump said. “In the way of all radical leftist ideologies, the regime has quashed any hope of prosperity, banished the notion of human dignity, and starved the hopes and dreams of its people.”
The president’s criticisms come as the U.S. has increased pressure on the Cuban government. On Wednesday, the U.S. indicted Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former Cuban president and brother of longtime leader Fidel Castro, on murder charges stemming from his alleged involvement in the shooting down of two planes in 1996. The planes were part of a humanitarian group known as Brothers to the Rescue, and the incident resulted in the death of three U.S. citizens and one resident. Castro and his brother were instrumental in the 1959 revolution that established the current Cuban government.
President Trump reaffirmed the objective of his administration to secure Cuba and protect the U.S. from any foreign adversaries that seek to use the country as an asset. “My commitment is ironclad: America will not tolerate a rogue state harboring hostile foreign military, intelligence and terror operations just ninety miles from the American homeland, and we will not rest until the people of Cuba once again have the freedom their forefathers fought so valiantly to establish over 100 years ago,” President Trump said.
