Bill Nelson: “I wish to join my colleagues, our two distinguished Members of the Senate who are of Cuban origin and who proudly bear…”

“I wish to join my colleagues, our two distinguished Members of the Senate who are of Cuban origin and who proudly bear that moniker of ``Cuban American,'' one of the most distinguished groups in our society in America today. I wish to say that at the time Fidel Castro was beginning his takeover on the island of Cuba, as a young boy I had the opportunity of representing the youth of America and going to the Iron Curtain at the German-Czechoslovakian border and speaking over Radio Free Europe to the young people behind the Iron Curtain. Of course, at age 17, what I saw that day made a lasting impression, for standing there at the German-Czechoslovakian border in the little village of Tillyschantz, seeing the machine gun nests, the guard towers, the concrete dragon's teeth to prevent anyone from breaking through the fence, the mine fields, the ground raked very clean so that any footprints could be seen, seeing the dogs patrolling back and forth, that, of course, made a significant impression upon a young mind that had some appreciation for the enslavement of people. Now, what happened to the Iron Curtain is happening to Cuba. That iron curtain around Cuba is starting to fall, and it is for exactly these same things that are happening now: 70 young people walking around with white wristbands that say ``cambio''--change--that the dying Communist, repressive, totalitarian regime is continuing to lash out and arrest them.”