Bob Menendez: “To those who feel exhausted after more than 40 years of constant oppression and of unfruitful efforts. To those whose…”

“To those who feel exhausted after more than 40 years of constant oppression and of unfruitful efforts. To those whose frustrations and discontent have caused them to lose their moral compass. To those who have concluded that we must appease the oppressor. To them I ask: Is it acceptable to the memory of the thousands of young Cubans, our best sons, who were executed by firing squads for the simple crime of defending our right to full liberty, to now accept complacency? Do those tens of thousands of compatriots who spent decades in prison, and who are still in a prison system whose horrors we can only imagine, deserve only partial liberty? Do those countless families who were separated from their loved ones and destroyed in the process, or those who have perished at sea, or who have died in exile dreaming of returning to their country, deserve that we now accept the crumbs that we are being offered? Shall we accept defeat after nearly a half a century of patriotic heroism in search of liberty and democracy, or shall we show the world that the most brutal-- The most brutal-- brand longest lasting dictatorship in our time could not extinguish the unbreakable spirit of [the] liberty of the Cubans? That is Dr. Biscet from jail. Those young people who marched on the street with a very simple message--with a very simple plastic bracelet: ``cambio,'' ``change,'' they are inspired by the Dr. Biscet of Cuba and others.…”