Lincoln Diaz-Balart: “today, February 24th, is a very important day in the history of Cuba. It is the day that in 1895 the war of independence…”

“today, February 24th, is a very important day in the history of Cuba. It is the day that in 1895 the war of independence of the Republic of Cuba began. After almost a century of fighting, the Cuban people began the war of independence of 1895 on February 24th, a war that was ultimately successful. And names that already had become not only part of martyrdom but of history, names like Cespedes and Agramonte and Aguilera, the founding fathers of the Cuban republic that had launched the first war of independence in 1868, a war that lasted 10 years, that caused hundreds of thousands of casualties, those names were added in the war that began in 1895 on this date to many others that also became part of martyrdom and of history, names like Marti and Banderas and some names from the prior war that again that took part in the war of independence that was successful in 1895, names like Gomez and Maceo. So this is a very important date in the history of Cuba, and it is important to remember it. It is also a very important date, Madam Speaker, now in the history of the United States, a date that is already not only part of history but has been bloodied just 2 years ago, on the 24th of February, 1996, when the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes were on a humanitarian mission over the Straits of Florida and were shot down and four innocent civilians were killed.”