IS CUBA A FREE COUNTRY?

by Chris Matthews

From MSNBC's Hardball, 4/3/00:

Democrat Rep. Jose Serrano: It's a -- it's a sovereign country.

Matthews: Is it a free country? I'm just asking. It's an easy question. ...

Serrano: It's a country with a system different from ours.

Matthews: Is it a free country?

Serrano: I don't know if it's a free country. I don't live there.

MATTHEWS: Does it allow personal freedom in that country, to make decisions?

Rep. SERRANO: It allows some--it--yes, it allows personal freedoms.

Absolutely.

MATTHEWS: Freedom of speech? Freedom of speech? It allows freedom of speech in Cuba?

Rep. SERRANO: But, you know--you know what you're doing, you're--you're simply doing...

MATTHEWS: Absolutely. You said there's absolute freedom of speech in Cuba. Rep. SERRANO: Well, do they allow--do they allow a father to love his child in Cuba?

MATTHEWS: Do they allow freedom of speech?

Rep. SERRANO: Sure.

But before he became a Congressman, he took a very different view:

"Well, part of the reason why I'm here first as a Puerto-Rican, to unite with this movement; with my Cuban brothers and demand that the Castros leave and let it be a free Cuba. But in addition, with the grace of God, on the 21st of March, I will be the Congressman and as a Congressman I want to be a voice that demands that the American government - the government in which I participate - not allow that Castro remain one more day; that it exert all the international pressure necessary so that Castro leaves and immediately help Cuba to be a free Cuba; a Cuba that we can all enjoy.

(Serrano at an anti-Castro protest, March 1990. Translated from Spanish. Interview on New York Univision affiliate, channel 41.

RealVideo and transcript available at www.nocastro.com/news/serrano
( http://www.nocastro.com/news/serrano )

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