Wałęsa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
MIAMI, United States. – The former president of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Wałęsa received recognition this Thursday in Miami, within the framework of a conference organized by the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora along with exile and Cuban opposition organizations, including the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC).
According to the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, the recognition was given to Wałęsa for his “distinguished career” and for his support of “human rights, freedom and the establishment of democracy and the rule of law in Cuba.”
During live coverage by CubaNetseveral participants linked to Cuban political activism highlighted the symbolism of honoring Wałęsa, a figure associated with the union and democratic struggle that contributed to the end of communism in Poland.
The opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer stated: “Today we honor ourselves when we present this award to Lech Wałęsa, undisputed leader of the struggle for freedom in Poland.” Ferrer also attributed to the Solidaridad union the beginning of a process that “brought freedom and democracy to all of Eastern Europe,” and added that “listening to Wałęsa” and “keeping in mind the example of his struggle” is useful for those, he said, who fight for changes in Cuba.
Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronatalso interviewed by CubaNet During the event, he said that “there is a special union between free Poland and free Cuba,” and described it as a relationship based on “years of struggle for freedom against colonialism, against communism, against all types of dictatorships.” In that same intervention he assured that “Poland today leads the fight to end European funds for Castroism.”
Another of the interviewees, the young Cuban-American Kiele Cabreranoted: “Lech Wałęsa has always been there as an example of how a people that is steeped in communism can transition democratically and throw off that yoke of repression,” and maintained that the main lesson of his presence was that Cubans should prepare “for what comes after liberation.”
Also Dariel Fernandezthe Miami-Dade tax collector, linked the tribute to the value of freedom. “Today what we saw here is a man who, with his career, also gave the people of Poland freedom. I believe that freedom is more important than everything material in life,” he said.
Wałęsa was a leader of the Solidarity union and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. He was a labor activist and helped form and lead Solidarity. In 1990 he became Poland’s first democratically elected president.
