Leader of Cuban opposition group visits Fla. exiles
Rights honoree wants a nation without Castros
CORAL GABLES, Fla. The leader of a Cuban opposition group awarded Europe’s top human-rights prize spoke against the Castro brothers during a visit Saturday to Miami, where the exile community received her message with enthusiastic applause.
“We want a Cuba in which liberty exists,” Berta Soler, co-founder of the Ladies in White, said. “Where there is democracy. And where there is respect for human rights. And also, we are fighting pacifically for a Cuba without the Castros.”
The wife of a former political prisoner traveled to the United States after receiving the Sakharov Prize with other members of the Ladies in White on Tuesday in Brussels. She met with Cuban-American political leaders in Washington and spent Saturday with exiles in Miami. On Saturday, Soler called the economic and social reforms instituted by Raul Castro “cosmetic.” The changes have expanded private enterprise and legalized a real estate market.
